Commentary: Seahawks’ loss to 49ers was ugly, but it showcased foundation for future

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Geno Smith wasn’t particularly interested in savoring the bright side of a rousing first half that fell completely apart after intermission. Nor did the quarterback take much immediate solace in a Seahawks season that went much better, and much farther, than anyone anticipated.

No, Smith fully recognized that their 41-23 loss to the 49ers on Saturday at Levi’s Stadium — a slow-developing but unambiguous rout — was a clarion call for the Seahawks to get better, across the board. If they want to close the clear gap with San Francisco, which owned both the division and the Seahawks this season, the marching orders couldn’t have been any clearer.

“You know, a part of me wants to say, ‘Man, we came such a long way, overcame so many obstacles, the naysayers and whatnot,’” observed Smith. “We beat their expectations — but I don’t think we beat our own expectations. I think we had greater expectations for ourselves.”

The hopes of a massive playoff upset, teased by Seattle’s 17-16 halftime lead, disintegrated in a 25-0 run in the second half by the 49ers. They were clearly the better team, replete with playmakers on both sides of the ball who forced a series of crippling mistakes by the Seahawks — including a strip sack of Smith in the midst of a Seattle scoring drive that was the clear turning point.

“I mean, you look at the first half of the game, they (the 49ers) were probably sweating down their back,” said Seahawks safety Ryan Neal.

But in the second half, the flop sweat belonged to the Seahawks.

They were outplayed on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. In fact, you can pick just about any area, and they were outplayed.

It will be incumbent on general manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll to boost the roster with the sort of dynamic players that haunted their afternoon. Despite all the pregame speculation about the effect of the stormy weather, it wasn’t the elements that influenced this game, nor the inexperience of San Francisco rookie quarterback Brock Purdy; it was the fact that the 49ers were simply and demonstrably the better team. And the mirage of a first-half rally by the Seahawks merely masked that fact temporarily.

“I feel like this is a microcosm of the season,” defensive end Quinton Jefferson said. “We squandered the opportunity. … It was a four-quarter game and we only played two, and that was the end result. They whipped us.”

But here’s the silver lining on a day of literal dark clouds in the Bay Area — the foundation that the Seahawks built so unexpectedly this year bodes well for a promising future. And in the aftermath of the game, that realization shared billing with the stark disappointment that permeated the Seattle locker room.

There was the fact that so many rookies solidified starting roles and figure to get better in Year Two, which NFL players will tell you is the season of the greatest growth. Smith emerged as a quarterback the Seahawks can move forward with — and all indications are that they plan to do just that. Smith’s emotional postgame remarks left no doubt that he plans to be back with Seattle despite facing free agency.

And, by virtue of the Russell Wilson trade — aka, the gift that keeps on giving — that allowed Seattle to unearth Smith’s unexpected renaissance, the Seahawks have the draft capital to augment their roster in significant ways. Seattle will have four picks in the first two rounds, starting with the No. 5 overall pick, the highest of the Carroll-Schneider regime. It provides a chance to acquire a true difference-maker.

In that sense, it’s possible to envision a path for Seattle to take the leap that they will be seeking, beyond the wild-card round of the playoffs. For Neal, it starts with the mindset of the team that developed this year.

“It’s nothing but heart and desperation from this group,” he said. “We did everything that everyone said we couldn’t do.”

Neal added that the Seahawks will be a team people will need to look out for next season, a future which he characterized as “very, very, very bright” — the rarely invoked triple very.

“I mean, if you can’t see that, you must not have your eyes open,” he said.

Said Carroll: “We’ve had so much growth, with so much yet to occur. The next turnaround is we get to come back with this next season. All of these young guys are going to see the world totally differently than they see it right now. They’re going to be amazed how much they didn’t know in their first season to play in the NFL.”

The beauty of Saturday’s game for the Seahawks — if that word can be used to describe what ultimately was an eyesore of an outing for Seattle — is that they got 30 minutes to see what it takes to hang with a team like the 49ers. And then the 49ers gave them a master class in how to grab hold of a game and make it their own.

“You’re only as good as your last game, so this one is going to sting us for the entire offseason,” Smith said. “It’s going to motivate me every single day I wake up to go to workouts. I’m going to think about it a lot, because it hurts that bad.”

That was the dark side of a maddening day in Santa Clara — one the Seahawks hope points them toward happier ones ahead.