Seahawks get win over 49ers, but fail to land No. 2 seed

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Seahawks did their job, but the Saints didn’t do theirs.

The Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers, 25-23, but didn’t lock up the No. 2 seed in the NFC because the New Orleans Saints lost to the Atlanta Falcons, 38-32.

Seattle instead landed the No. 3 seed, and will face the loser of Sunday night’s Green Bay-Detroit game in the first round of the playoffs next weekend.

The day and time of the game have not yet been determined.

While the Seahawks were happy to come home with the win, they didn’t always look great doing it. Once again, Seattle failed to put together much of a running attack, and once again, it struggled badly on special teams.

Lining up against what was the NFL’s worst rushing defense this season by a wide margin, the Seahawks managed just 88 yards on 24 carries.

Steven Hauschka walked away with another extra point that didn’t find its way to the net – this one was blocked – and long-snapper Nolan Freese sailed a snap over Jon Ryan’s head that out the back of the end zone for a safety.

Things were even ugly on the sidelines. Following a 49ers extra-point kick in the fourth quarter, Seahawks rookie Jarran Reed was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. As he was making his way to the locker room, Frank Clark grabbed him and screamed at him, and the two got in a scuffle that was broken up by teammates.

Russell Wilson had a solid day before heading into the bench in the fourth quarter, completing 19 of 32 passes for 258 yards and a touchdown while setting the Seahawks’ single-season passing yards record with 4,220.