The San Francisco 49ers are 1-9 this season. However, their record does not convey how close several of those nine losses have been, especially in the early part of the season.
One of the team’s closest losses this season came when they fell to the Seahawks in Seattle during Week 2 by a final score of 12-9.
The 49ers will play those same Seahawks this Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, hoping to avenge their defeat in November.
49ers’ general manager John Lynch appeared on Murph & Mac Wednesday morning, and discussed his respect for the Seahawks’ organization, as well as the importance of the 49ers not assuming that injuries to key Seahawks’ defenders Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman will make the Seahawks easy to beat.
“They have been the standard bearer [in the NFC West]. I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for that organization, I’ve been around those people a lot,” Lynch said. “You know, one thing that I think is really important: We can’t fall for that proverbial banana in the tailpipe, that hey, they’re injured. When I watched the other night, guys kept going out, but whoever they brought in played at a high level, and that’s what they’ve created up there. It’s kind of a mentality and an aggressiveness with the way they do things, and it doesn’t matter who’s in there, we’re going to play to this standard.”
Lynch also discussed the physicality of the game the last time the two teams met. He noted that while he was happy with the 49ers’ physical presence in that game, he wants to see the growth that will allow them to come out on top this Sunday.
“The second game of the year we were up in Seattle, I thought we played an incredibly physical game, I thought we really took it to them, but we didn’t come out of that game on the right side,” Lynch said. “I want to see if we’ve grown to that next step, to where we can physically hang with them, and then find a way to pull it out. Those are the opportunities that you get in this league that are so exciting, and we get a great one on Sunday.”
Listen to the interview below. To hear Shanahan’s comments on the Seahawks, skip to the 9:00 mark.