Seahawks edge San Francisco 49ers for first win of season

SEATTLE – You know the old football blood and guts thing: Broken bone or broken spirit, just tape it up and go back out there and make the play.

Well, Paul Richardson taped it up, went back out there and made the play.

In this case, it was a catch for the first touchdown of this Seattle Seahawks season – more than 7 1/2 quarters old, at that point – and the deciding points in a grim 12-9 decision over the hapless San Francisco 49ers on a rainy Sunday at CenturyLink Field.

It turned some sustained boos from the crowd of 68,729 frustrated by missed first-half opportunites and punchless three-and-outs into a roar – albeit a brief one, once kicker Blair Walsh sent the PAT caroming off the upright. That opened the door for potential disaster with seven minutes still to play – and fans had seen plenty of disaster already.

But not this time.

The Seahawks defense, stout almost the entire game but dented by two long runs by Carlos Hyde and three field goals that had wiped out a 6-0 lead, forced a quick punt. And with rookie running back Chris Carson gashing through holes opened by Seattle’s maligned offensive line, the Seahawks ate up the game’s final 4:47 without incident.

“That was really big time,” said quarterback Russell Wilson.

Almost as big time as his connection with Richardson for the game-winner.

Having settled for two short Walsh field goals after having touchdown passes dropped in the first quarter, Wilson faced a more desperate scenario down 9-6 early in the fourth. This time, he opted to open things up with his feet – rushing for 27 yards on zone reads and scrambles, before a pass interference call on the Niners’ Dontae Jackson set the Seahawks up 12 yards from the end zone.

But the Seahawks were in a red-zone stall again on third down when Wilson magically escaped a collapsed pocket and somehow got off a pass with DeForest Buckner starting to haul him down. Richardson had broken off his route and beat cornerback Rashard Robinson to the ball and got his feet down a step inside the end zone.

“My first move didn’t work,” Richardson said. “The DB mirrored me and I just thought, ‘I hope Russell comes this way’ – and as soon as he did, I jabbed inside and broke for the front pylon. Russell always knows where to put it.”

Still, Richardson seemed like an unlikely target. On Seattle’s first possession, he dislocated the ring finger on his right hand trying to scoop a low throw – the bone breaking through the skin. After an X-ray, some stitches and a tape job in the locker room, he quickly returned – but had made just one earlier catch before his game-winner.

“That was the goal before (the injury happened),” he said, “so that was the goal once I got it sewed up. I wasn’t just trying to get back out there to be, ‘He’s tough and finishing the game.’ I wanted to make a difference.”

The same could be said of Carson, a lightly regarded seventh-round draft choice out of Oklahoma State, who got his chance this week when the Seahawks deactivated Eddie Lacy and decided to work Thomas Rawls in slowly after a preseason ankle sprain. He had just 35 yards on 12 carries through three quarters – but rumbled for 58 in the fourth – 41 on five carries on that clock-killing final drive.

“There is a style about the way he runs you might recognize,” said coach Pete Carroll, referencing ex-Seahawks great Marshawn Lynch. “High knees and chomping and eating that ground up. He’s really downhill at you.”

But those highlights were consolations. Touchdown drops by C.J. Prosise and Tanner McEvoy ruined long marches in the first quarter, and McEvoy had another third-down drop inside the Niners 30 to kill another drive in the third – mistakes Carroll called “uncharacteristic. But let’s go back to the third-down numbers – almost 50 percent today.”

He was just as proud of the defense’s third-down work. San Francisco converted just two of 12, and quarterback Brian Hoyer threw for a mere 99 yards – with a quarterback rating of 48.2.