Published October 12, 2026 10:51 AM
Thanks to Dan Quinn’s colossal clock-mismanagement error, plenty of other mistakes made by NFL coaches from Week 5 weren’t as conspicuous as they should have been.
One possible blunder requires further consideration.
With 18 seconds left in the second quarter, the Seahawks called a running play. From their own four yard line. Running back George Holani (who had dropped the ball without contact earlier in the half) fumbled, and the 49ers recovered it for a touchdown.
During PFT Live, Simms said the Seahawks should have just taken a knee and ended the half. It was indeed a nonsensical decision, on the surface, to run the ball. It’s not as if the Seahawks were going to pop a 96-yard touchdown run. They opened the door to a possible turnover, and the turnover happened.
After the show, I took a closer look at the situation. The Seahawks had exhausted their timeouts as a 49ers’ drive in Seattle territory sputtered, forcing a punt with 27 seconds left. The fourth-down play from the Seahawks’ 42 resulted in a punt that was touched at the four and downed before entering the end zone.
At that point, the Seahawks had a problem. The 49ers had all three timeouts in hand. If the Seahawks had opted to take a knee, and if the 49ers had used their timeouts, Seattle would have been punting out of their own end zone with roughly 10 seconds left. And even if the clock had expired on the punt, a fair catch would have set the stage for a free kick on an untimed down from the spot of the fair catch, and a potential three points.
So the Seahawks tried to gain some yards and churn some clock. The problem is that Holani fumbled.
The other question is whether the Seahawks should have refrained from calling their own timeouts. If that had happened, however, the 49ers could have allowed the clock to run down to the final seconds, with either a Hail Mary throw or a 60-yard field goal attempt to end the half.
There was no easy way out of the maze, and the ability of the 49ers to put the ball inside the five put the Seahawks in a box.
The easy solution is don’t fumble. The more important consideration is whether a guy who dropped the ball earlier in the half should have been trusted to possess the ball so close to his own goal line.
Regardless, that was a big moment that the Seahawks then had to fight to overcome in the second half. And while they did indeed take a 23-21 lead (and later a 26-21 lead), it would have been a lot easier for the Seahawks to win if they hadn’t handed the 49ers an easy seven points right before intermission.