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The Seattle Seahawks will face the San Francisco 49ers, a team that knows them inside and out, in the divisional round, with a ticket to the NFC title game on the line. Nonetheless, ahead of this playoff game, the Seahawks are getting a strong message from a former player.
Former Seahawks star Richard Sherman offered his old team a bit of advice ahead of facing the 49ers, who came from behind to beat the Philadelphia Eagles on the road despite losing George Kittle to an Achilles tendon injury.
“If they’re not able to run the football as well as they did in the first half, Sam Darnold is going to have to push the ball down the field,” Sherman said in a Jan. 15 video from “The Richard Sherman Podcast.”
“[Jaxon Smith-Njigba] has been magnificent down the field. But for some reason, I think they’re going to have to take more shots in this game. Again, when you feel like you have that safety blanket of a great defense, it allows you more freedom.
“I believe Sam Darnold is going to feel, is that, ‘Hey, I can be a little bit more aggressive with the football in this game,’ and know that, ‘Hey, we got one of the best defenses in the National Football League backing me up.’ Outside of a few drives in that game, this San Francisco 49ers offense didn’t show that they could figure this defense out.”
Moreover, if the Seahawks and 49ers find themselves in a tight contest, Sherman believes it will be on Sam Darnold to be the difference-maker. In the Week 18 game, Darnold did make timely passes against the Niners, but with so much on the line in this game, he might need to do more.
“If somehow the San Francisco 49ers get ahead in this game, I think the pressure builds, and the level is through the roof really quickly. I think this could be a big-time moment for Sam Darnold to show who he is, to be the big-time quarterback that this franchise believes he can be. It’s going to be a really fun game.”
Darnold has a passer rating of 92.9 with 348 yards in the two meetings versus the 49ers this season, per StatMuse. The Seahawks QB hasn’t thrown for a touchdown against San Francisco, so that might need to change in the divisional matchup.
Nonetheless, after it was all said and done, it’s Round 3 with the 49ers. On Jan. 11, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald appeared on the NFL on NBC and shared his thoughts about playing the 49ers for a third time this season.
“They’re a heck of a team,” Macdonald told NBC Sports’ Maria Taylor on FaceTime. “We’ve got to play great situational football. They’re so good on third down on both sides. The special teams, like the starting field position, were a big part of the last game. So we did a great job taking care of the ball on offense. We attacked it on defense. We got to be able to do that back at Lumen.”
