On Thursday night, the Seahawks host the 49ers in a key NFC West game with potential playoff implications.
Both teams will enter this matchup as heavy favorites, aiming to bounce back from their home losses.
Let's take a closer look at the matchups that will be important in the future.
when the seahawks have the ball
The Seahawks completely abandoned the run game as they fell behind the Giants on Sunday.
Their early down rush rate was 15%, and Kenneth Walker III finished with just five carries for 19 yards against a capable run defense.
Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb has expressed a desire to fix that, so expect Walker to be thrown in heavily early against the Seahawks.
Geno Smith had a great season in the offense with his new glove, ranking second in the league in pass completion percentage and 13th in adjusted EPA/play.
This is even more impressive considering the Seahawks rank just 30th in pass block win percentage and have struggled to keep the pocket clean for him.
That could be a problem against the 49ers' sixth-ranked pass rush unit.
When the 49ers have the ball
With Christian McCaffrey out, Jordan Mason filled his role admirably, ranking second in the NFL with 536 rushing yards.
He could be in for another big game against a Seahawks defense that has been plagued by significant injuries.
Uchenna Nwosu, Byron Murphy II and Derrick Hall are all at risk of missing this game.
At the same time, cornerback Tarik Uhlen is also questionable.
Brock Purdy has had a very efficient season, ranking 8th in adjusted EPA/Play and Success Rate.
Despite some early injury issues with the receiving corps, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle are healthy and ready to attack a Seattle defense whose metrics have declined week by week.
The Seahawks ranked second in defensive DVOA at the start of the season, using a schedule that included quarterbacks Bo Nix, Jacoby Brissett and Skyler Thompson.
However, the Lions and Giants' defenses have been exposed over the past two weeks.
One area where the 49ers struggle is in the red zone, where they rank just 29th in touchdown percentage.
Losing McCaffrey certainly hurts, but I'd like to see some positive setbacks on the horizon for San Francisco in terms of finishing drives with touchdowns.
final verdict
I had high hopes for the Seahawks going into the season, but this is a tough place for them.
They're playing their third game in 11 days, and the 49ers have the upper hand in the trenches on both sides of the ball due to injuries on the defensive end.
In district games, where both teams have a short rest period, the favorite and road team tend to have an advantage.
Do you want to bet on the NFL?
Over the last 20 years, championship favorites have gone 98-79-5 (55%) against the spread and road teams have gone 99-77-5 (54%) ATS.
In his short NFL career, Purdy was 9-13 ATS when trailing by 4 points or more and 8-2 ATS when trailing by 3.5 points or less or trailing. .
Geno Smith, meanwhile, is 3-10 in night games in his career and 3-9 in games on short breaks, ranking him among the 218 quarterbacks to make it to the prize line over the past 20 years, according to Action Network. This is the fourth-worst score among all. .
Given the matchup and trends so far, the only team to pick is the 49ers -3.5 (-105, BetMGM) in this game.
