49ers’ Pregame Antics Look Worse Following Blowout Loss to Rival Seahawks
There's acting stupid, and then there's what the 49ers did before Saturday's game.
If you’re going to talk a big game before actually playing it, you better back it up. The San Francisco 49ers failed to do that on Saturday night — big time.
An injury-plagued 49ers team walked into Lumen Field to take on the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Divisional Round. Despite dropping their last meeting with Seattle 13-3 and losing George Kittle to a season-ending Achilles injury last week, San Francisco felt confident. They had some reason too; they had already beaten Seattle on that field in September and were one week removed from a comeback win in a hostile Philadelphia.
But there’s a fine line between expressing your confidence and being cocky. The 49ers sped past that faster than Brandon Aiyuk in a Cadillac.
Before leaving the tunnel, players were seen dancing to music played on the team’s boom box (a common tradition they had). But what sent them over the line was grabbing a fan's sign and ripping it apart.
Not only is that arrogant, it's highly uncalled-for. Fans can be annoying, but that doesn’t justify ripping their signs apart.
Turns out the team’s arrogance was highly unjustified, and things unravelled quickly. On the first play of the game, Raheed Shaheed took the opening kickoff to the house.
Seattle just kept piling it on afterward, winning the game 41-6. That kickoff return ended up being the game-winning score, which is wild to think about.
The 49ers were doing a lot of hooting and hollering before the game, confident they were going to back up their swagger with results. But he who laughs last laughs best, which means the Seahawks — and their fans — are feeling amazing a day later.
Maybe next time, they should focus on making a statement on the field rather than in the tunnel.