3 Seahawks most responsible for Wild Card playoff loss to 49ers

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The Seattle Seahawks were injured by a rookie quarterback. After a bad loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the Wild Card round, who’s to blame?

The Seattle Seahawks were playing with house money in the playoffs this year. Faced with competing for the first overall pick before the start of the season, they rallied behind Geno Smith and pushed for the playoffs instead, officially securing their playoff spot in Week 18 when the Packers of Green Bay lost to the Detroit Lions.

Even if you’re playing with house money, the hope is that you’ll still make smart bets and come out on top. The Seahawks were simply unable to do so in their Saturday playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers, ultimately losing 41-23.

The Hawks are now eliminated from the playoffs and return to the drawing board with the rest of the teams now preparing for the draft.

So who is to blame for the beating suffered by the Seahawks on Saturday? We’ll take a look.

Seahawks most responsible for Wild Card loss to 49ers: Tariq Woolen

Although Tariq Woolen wasn’t to blame for the touchdown as the pass rush did its job, he slipped into the man’s cover and nearly gave up an easy score.

He fought where it mattered most against Brandon Aiyuk:

And while the recovery speed is certainly impressive here, it would be nice if Woolen didn’t need to recover in the first place:

Woolen was a great choice and his rookie year showed us there was a lot to like about his future. But overall he didn’t play a great game.

More on defense later, because it wasn’t entirely Woolen’s fault.

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