SEATTLE – This one is going to sting for the Seattle Seahawks.

Seattle was unable to hold onto a late lead as third-string tight end Jake Tonges ripped the game-winning touchdown catch away from cornerback Riq Woolen with 1:34 left to play. A chance to pull off a game-winning drive for themselves then slipped out of Sam Darnold’s fingers as tackle Abe Lucas was shoved back into Darnold’s arm by 49ers star pass rusher Nick Bosa to force the clinching fumble for the San Francisco 49ers in a 17-13 victory.

It’s only one game, but the Seahawks are quickly alone in last place in the NFC West as the 49ers, Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals each won their games on Sunday.

“We want to be able to defend home,” wide receiver Cooper Kupp said. “The guys are sick because they know the importance of winning here. There’s a weightiness to that in finding a way. This is not how we want to operate, and not what we want to do, and guys want to make that right.”

The Seahawks’ offense sputtered outside of star wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Seattle was just 3-for-10 on third down and saw the 49ers run 22 more offensive plays in the game.

Meanwhile, Seattle’s defense held together for most of the day with a pair of interceptions from Ernest Jones IV and Josh Jobe, along with a blocked field goal by Julian Love helping keep the 49ers off the scoreboard.

But when it was needed most, the 49ers made the play on both offense and defense to come out with the win while the Seahawks headed home 0-1.

“I think our guys played incredibly hard; played all 60 minutes; gave ourselves a chance to win at the end,” head coach Mike Macdonald said. “I think we have a really good football team and we’re not there yet, so let’s go work, figure out things we can do better, and move forward. Which we will.”

Here are the takeaways from the loss to the 49ers:

49ers won the key moments.

The result of NFL games can balance on a knife’s edge. Typically, a few plays here and there are the determining factors of who wins and who loses.

On Sunday, it was the 49ers that made those plays in the fourth quarter and the Seahawks didn’t.

Ricky Pearsall made a 45-yard catch over Woolen up the left sideline to move the 49ers into Seattle’s territory, then third-string tight end Jake Tonges wrested a touchdown catch away from Woolen in the end zone.

Tonges’ touchdown came on a third-and-3 when Seattle forced 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy to extend the play for eight seconds before finally throwing for the end zone. It was the type of throw that regularly finds its way into the hands of defenders for interceptions instead of their intended targets. However, Tonges worked back around Woolen to snatch the ball away for what ultimately served as the game-winning score.

“We played the first 9.9 of that 10-second play at the end phenomenally. The guy made a great play,” Macdonald said.

Woolen tried to catch the throw from Purdy and was beaten to the ball from behind by Tonges. Woolen also got a touch flat-footed on the throw to Pearsall earlier in the drive, which allowed the throw to get over his head.

“We’re here at the highest level, and Riq’s somebody that we trust to make those plays,” linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. “Regardless of who was in that situation, plays should have been made before that. The game should have never came down to the one or two plays towards the end. We could have never been in that situation.”

Once the 49ers took the lead, the Seahawks had a chance to answer. Darnold led the Seahawks 52 yards in five plays to get to the San Francisco 9-yard line. But Nick Bosa drove right tackle Abe Lucas back into Darnold’s arm, which caused a fumble that ended the comeback chance for Seattle.

“It came out off somebody,” Darnold said. “I don’t know who hit it or what. I think it was off one of our offensive lineman’s back. Yeah, didn’t slip out or anything like that.”

The ball may not have slipped out of Darnold’s hands, but the win definitely slipped out of Seattle’s grasp.

“I can’t sugar coat it; it sucks,” safety Julian Love said. “You’re waiting all offseason to play these guys and to take it to them. For them to come out on top is a touch pill to swallow.”  

Jaxon Smith-Njigba can’t be the only productive offensive player.

Already coming off a 100-catch, 1,000-yard receiving season, Jaxon Smith-Njigba appears to have another big season ahead of him this year for Seattle.

However, he can’t be the only productive offensive piece if the Seahawks are going to have the season they’re hoping for.

Smith-Njigba was targeted 13 times on Sam Darnold’s 23 pass attempts, catching nine passes for 124 yards. The rest of the roster had just seven receptions combined for 26 yards.

Meanwhile, the running game managed just 3.2 yards per carry behind Zach Charbonnet’s 47 yards on 12 carries, and Ken Walker III’s 20 yards on 10 carries.

“Jax made a lot of great plays,” Macdonald said. “There is more opportunity for him out there, which I’m sure he’ll tell you. 

“We’re going to count on everybody. See who else steps up. It’s not the Jax show every snap.”

Smith-Njigba had two catches for 50 yards on Seattle’s final drive as Danold was clearly looking in his direction with nearly every big throw. Smith-Njigba was up for the task and truly does appear set to ascend into the upper tier of wide receivers in the NFL this year.

But he’s going to need some help.

“After I came off the field after the game I knew that wasn’t our standard and how we do things,” Darnold said. “We knew that. I knew that personally. I talked to some of the guys already and we’re just going to continue to grow and get better from it and we’ll be all right.”

Special teams helped keep the Seahawks in the game.

The 49ers ran significantly more offensive plays than Seattle as they were able to maintain possession and kept pushing down the field. But two of those drives failed to end in points due to special teams mistakes by the 49ers that allowed Seattle to benefit.

Jake Moody clanged a 27-yard field goal try off the left upright late in the half that would have given the 49ers a 10-7 lead. Instead, the Seahawks were able to drive for a go-ahead field goal before the break on a 48-yard kick from Jason Myers.

In the third quarter, the 49ers had a 36-yard field goal try to tie the game at 10-10. Instead, the Seahawks ran through lineman Matt Hennessey on the left end, which allowed Julian Love to shoot into the backfield and block the kick to again thwart a San Francisco scoring chance.

“Obviously he missed one, and I was able to get the block on another,” Love said. “… I kind of jumped the gap, got a good launch, and thankfully got my hands on it. So, yeah, good play.”

Meanwhile, Myers made his field goal try from distance, Cody White had a big 36-yard kickoff return, and Tory Horton had a solid 12-yard punt return.

Missed opportunity to assert offensive identity, convert fourth down.

Given the struggles of the offense to sustain drives throughout the afternoon, the chance to lead a scoring drive with seven minutes left to play seemed to be the perfect chance for Seattle to flex its intended offensive identity.

The Seahawks took over with 7:06 remaining after Jobe’s interception of Purdy. Seattle turned back to their ground game as they tried to burn clock and put the game away.

And it started quite well. 

Seattle gained 29 yards on five consecutive rushes to kill over three minutes of clock and move into San Francisco territory. But after Walker got stopped on second-and-6 for a 1-yard loss, it forced a throw on third down. Kupp came up with a 6-yard reception to set up a fourth-and-1 from the SF 19-yard line.

It’s not a clear-cut decision. Kick a field goal to take the lead, but leave over three minutes on the clock for your opponent, or risk getting nothing by going for the fourth down. And it’s easy to say that because what Seattle chose to do didn’t win them the game, that it was a mistake to kick the field goal.

Instead, we’ll just lament the lost opportunity for Seattle to invoke the running identity that they’ve preached this offseason. The Seahawks have talked repeatedly about wanting to be a running football team and that they’ll be committed to the running game. What better way to show that than to go get the yard you need on the ground against a division opponent in the fourth quarter?

Macdonald said they did consider going for it, but elected to defend the lead instead.

“I just felt like let’s go take a lead and let’s go play ball,” he said.

The Seahawks ultimately finished with just 67 yards on 22 carries from Charbonnet and Walker. Darnold added 14 yards on a pair of scrambles, and A.J. Barner and Jalen Milroe added three combined yards on a pair of carries for 84 total rushing yards in the game.

“Hot and cold,” Macdonald said. “We’ve got to maintain the ball better and be more efficient on early downs, convert more on third down. Good two-minute at the end. I mean, some good stuff, but we got to operate more efficiently and be better on first and second down to give us some third downs where we can convert and keep drives going”

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