Seahawks steamroll 49ers again in 20-3 loss

SANTA CLARA - There’s nothing like a trip to the Bay Area to get the Seattle Seahawks humming again.

The Seahawks are two-time defending NFC champions, Super Bowl winners as recently as 20 months ago, but they have faltered badly in 2015. They came into Thursday night’s game at Levi’s Stadium with a 2-4 record, having given up double-digit, fourth-quarter leads - at home! - in consecutive games.

But Seattle found a familiar tonic in the 49ers. The Seahawks beat their archrivals (or the shell of their former archrivals) for the sixth time in seven games, handing out a 20-3 beatdown on Thursday night that triggered flashbacks of last year’s Thanksgiving Day debacle, the one Jed York apologized about.

The score of that one was 19-3. Last December, up in Seattle, the Seahawks won 17-7.

“That game today was not what we want,” 49ers head coach Jim Tomsula said. “It was not acceptable. We did not play well. We don’t have an excuse. Again, that lies right here. We need to do a better job.”

The common denominator in those losses? Dominant defense by the boys of the North. This time Seattle held the 49ers to 142 total yards, their lowest output since Nov. 5, 2006, when tight end Vernon Davis was a rookie and Patrick Willis and Joe Staley were but twinkles in then-GM Scot McCloughan’s eye.

“We’ve had our struggles with Seattle,” Davis said. “It’s hard to get by this. It is. I’m not gonna stand here and lie. It’s Seattle, and we haven’t really had much success against them these past couple years.”

It was the San Francisco passing game that really short-circuited. Colin Kaepernick completed 13 of 24 passes for just 124 yards, and gave up 43 yards on six sacks. He was under pressure virtually the entire game, especially from defensive end Michael Bennett, who had 3½ sacks by himself.

Like many of the 49ers, wide receiver Torrey Smith bolted the locker room before reporters entered. But he soon tweeted: “Unacceptable….that was sorry.”

At least it was a player who apologized for the Niners’ play this time. Last Thanksgiving it was team owner Jed York, an infamous move that may have contributed to Jim Harbaugh’s departure.

Seattle improved to 3-4, rekindling hopes of a playoff run. That seems remote for the 2-5 49ers.

The second half was a yawner, each team scoring just three points. The 49ers couldn’t get any attack going. The Seahawks acted almost as if they didn’t need to.

And the Niners seemed willing to accept the outcome. Down 17 points with 4:16 left, Tomsula elected to punt the ball on fourth-and-4. A minute later, San Francisco punted again on fourth-and-3.

The Seahawks dominated the first half, sacking Kaepernick four times and pinning the 49ers on their half of the field for all but one possession.

The big blow came 2:44 before halftime. Seattle was up 10-0, a manageable deficit. But sensational rookie Tyler Lockett raced past cornerback Tramaine Brock and hauled in Wilson’s pinpoint pass for a 43-yard touchdown to push the Seahawks’ lead to 17 points.

Seattle had to work a lot harder for its first touchdown. After the 49ers started the game by going three plays and out, the Seahawks took over at their 39 and quickly moved into San Francisco territory. But after reaching the Niners’ 3, the visitors had to convert a fourth-and-1 play on a run by Marshawn Lynch, then needed three snaps from the 1.

They scored, though, with Lynch hurtling into the end zone. The big back, who missed two weeks with a hamstring injury before returning against the Panthers last weekend, ran for 122 yards on 27 carries against the 49ers.

Seattle’s Steven Hauschka sandwiched a 49-yard field goal between the touchdowns, and he added a 46-yarder early in the fourth quarter that pushed the lead to 20-3.

The only things keeping the 49ers in the game for much of the night were interceptions against Russell Wilson. The score was 17-0 and the Seahawks were on the march again when the quarterback tried to thread the ball to Doug Baldwin in the end zone, and Brock came underneath to steal the ball.

Later, in the third quarter, Wilson overthrew Jermaine Kearse badly on a deep ball down the middle, and 49ers cornerback Kenneth Acker picked it off.

Wilson finished 18 of 24 for 235 yards.

Both of these offensive lines entered the game under duress. Seattle’s wasn’t great by any means Thursday, with Niners linebacker Aaron Lynch leading a strong pass rush that dumped Wilson five times. But San Francisco’s patched-together front wall was a disaster. Kaepernick looked like the jittery, indecisive quarterback who struggled through the first four games of the season.

“You know what you’re gonna get when you get Seattle - physical football team,” wide receiver Quinton Patton said. “You just gotta bring it.”

Thursday, the 49ers didn’t. Again.