The Seahawks announced the defensive starters during pregame ceremonies on Sunday, meaning there were no stadium-wide screams of “Cooooop” for Cooper Kupp being introduced.
Those screams had to wait until the last minute of the first half when Kupp made a 9-yard catch as part of a quiet debut for the one-time high school star from Yakima and college standout at Eastern Washington.
“Obviously don’t get the outcome you wanted. Plenty of plays we’re going to want back,” Kupp said. “Going to look at this film and be sick to our stomachs and want to fix up some of that stuff.”
Kupp finished with just three targets and two catches for 15 yards in his first game with the Seahawks. Most of the passing game was directed toward Jaxon Smith-Njigba leaving Kupp with a secondary role in the offense against the 49ers.
Even so, two of the throws that went his way ended up being significant in the outcome.
read more 49ers 17, seahawks 13
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (1) catches a pass behind the defense of Seattle Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen (27) during an NFL game on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Seattle.
On the Seahawks’ first possession of the second half, Kupp had a slant pass on a third-and-3 slip through his hands as the Seahawks went three-and-out. They didn’t get the ball back for another 8 minutes as San Francisco went on a 14-play drive and only Julian Love’s blocked field goal kept the 49ers from scoring.
Then in the fourth quarter, Kupp was knocked out of bounds for a 6-yard gain on third-and-7 from the San Francisco 25. Rather than go for it, the Seahawks opted for Jason Myers’ 37-yard field goal. Coming up one-yard short proved important when the 49ers went down and scored what turned out to be the winning touchdown on the next drive.
The two catches for only 15 yards are a stark difference from the season openers for Kupp the past few years. In 2021 he had seven catches for 108 yards and a TD against Chicago. In 2022, he had 13 catches for 128 yards and a score versus Buffalo. Two years ago, Kupp went for eight catches for 118 yards against Philadelphia and last season he had 14 catches on 21 targets for 110 yards and a TD facing Detroit.
Emmanwori injury changes defensive plan
Rookie Nick Emmanwori figured to be a big part of the defensive game plan against the 49ers, especially against the run.
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The 35th overall pick in the 2025 draft, Emmanwori has worked regularly in camp in a specialty defensive package as a third safety, often lining up essentially as a linebacker.
Just five plays into the game he showed how the Seahawks hoped the package would look, racing over to stop 49ers standout running back Christian McCaffrey for a two-yard loss.
Emmanwori hurt his ankle on the play and did not play another defensive snap.
Coach Mike Macdonald said the injury does not appear serious.
“We don’t think it’s a high ankle, so that’s positive,” Macdonald said. “Everything is intact we think.”
Without Emmanwori, the Seahawks tried to continue using the three-safety look, giving Ty Okada some snaps. But Okada was beaten by 49ers tight end George Kittle for San Francisco’s first touchdown and was on the defensive end of short pass to Jauan Jennings that turned into an 11-yard gain on third-and-seven.
The Seahawks appeared to shelve the third-safety look in the second half and go either with their base defense or a nickel package with Witherspoon moving inside and Josh Jobe on the outside.
“Yeah, guy goes down, you’ve got to change personnel,” Macdonald said. “We played the game lighter than we normally play against them. But I thought ‘Spoon went in and did a great job at nickel.”
Even without Emmanwori, the Seahawks appeared to still play the run well as McCaffrey — who entered the game questionable with a calf injury but appeared to play a regular amount of snaps — had just 69 yards on 21 carries with a long of only 13.
Should Seahawks have gone for it on fourth down?
The loss means that everything the Seahawks did will be questioned, including the decision to kick a field goal rather than go for it on fourth-and-one at the 19-yard line with 3:28 left in a 10-10 tie.
Macdonald said the team did consider it but decided to get the lead and “let’s go play ball” and hope to stop the 49ers from there.
Likely playing into that decision are the issues of 49ers field-goal kicker Jake Moody, who had missed one field goal earlier in the game from 27 yards out and had another blocked.
That might have made Macdonald feel that the Seahawks would make a three-point lead hold up.
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Myers made a 38-yarder to put them ahead 13-10 before the 49ers drove the field to score what proved to be the winning TD with 1:34 left.
“First of all, it’s not my decision” Seahawks QB Sam Darnold said. “Second of all, that’s a tough call. Whatever Mike (Macdonald) wants to do in that situation we believe fully in that. If we want to kick the field goal, great. If we wanting to go for it, great. For us, it’s just about going out there and executing. I felt like we just didn’t do a good enough job of that today.”
Kupp mostly pointed the finger at himself, wishing he’d picked up another yard on the previous play.
“I don’t know, I guess you can look back on it now and say oh yeah, ‘shoot, it would have been great to have gone for it,’” Kupp said. “But, I trust the decision-makers here and what they’re doing what the analytics say and also what those guys are feeling in terms of the course of the game. Shoot, I would have liked to have find a way to convert on that third down, find a way to get my foot in the ground and get us that extra yard.”
Williams questions roughing call
The Seahawks were called for just four penalties for 30 yards compared to nine for 61 for the 49eres.
But one was especially costly — a roughing-the-passer penalty on defensive lineman Leonard Williams when Brock Purdy threw incomplete on a third-and-nine play from the Seattle 39 midway through the first quarter.
That gave the 49ers a first down at the 24 and they scored a TD to take a 7-0 lead.
Williams said an official told him that he hit Purdy in the head.
“(But) then I re-watched the play (and) I didn’t,’’ Williams said. “I went back to the refs and they told me that they thought that I could have avoided hitting him. But then, the white hat (referee Shawn Hochuli) told me that it looked like it was hard to avoid him, so I don’t know. I feel like they threw the flag and they couldn’t overturn it.”
Said Macdonald: “We’ll look at the roughing the passer penalty and make sure we’re coaching it the right way.”
Tim Booth: Tim Booth is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times, where he covers the Kraken and the ongoing story surrounding possible NBA expansion and helps with coverage of the Seahawks and Mariners.
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com: Bob Condotta is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times who primarily covers the Seahawks but also dabbles in other sports. He has worked at The Times since 2002, reporting on University of Washington Husky football and basketball for his first 10 years at the paper before switching to the Seahawks in 2013.