SANTA CLARA, Calif. – With 18 seconds left in Sunday’s game, Seahawks rookie center Olu Oluwatimi shotgun -snapped the ball to quarterback Geno Smith and took a few steps back and to his right to help teammate Anthony Bradford double-team 49ers defensive lineman Maliek Collins.
He turned to his left and saw that Smith had tucked the ball and was heading past him toward the San Francisco end zone.
And what happened then?
“I just felt some wind behind,’’ Oluwatimi said with a smile. “And I was like ‘Hey Geno, roll!’ ”
Smith didn’t stop rolling until he crossed the goal line with a play that rocked the 49ers, his 13-yard TD giving the Seahawks a stunning 20-17 win over San Francisco.
That wind Oluwatimi felt might also have been the huge sigh of relief breathed by every Seahawk on the field and sideline.
The win snapped a six-game losing streak to the 49ers – all by eight points or more – and kept the Seahawks in the hunt in the NFC West.
They are in a three-way tie with the 49ers and Rams at 5-5, a game back of 6-4 Arizona. The win came on the heels of a stretch of losing five of six.
“I just think it gets us back on track and boosts the morale in the building,’’ said Oluwatimi, who played every snap at center in place of Connor Williams, whose abrupt retirement was among the many challenges the Seahawks have faced the last few weeks.
Afterward, few tried to hide that they were sick of losing to the 49ers.
“It’s great for us to finally beat them,’’ receiver Tyler Lockett said.
“Long overdue,’’ cornerback Devon Witherspoon said.
No one felt that more than Smith, who had heard all week that he was 0-5 against the 49ers as the Seahawks’ starting quarterback.
“We knew how much was at stake, man,’’ said Smith. “We were trying to turn our season around.”
This game felt like the last chance to do that, coming as it did following a bye week in which players got healthy and coach Mike Macdonald and his staff made a few tweaks to improve their game-week preparation and the team’s operation.
The Seahawks seemed a sharper, more efficient team, committing just four penalties for 20 yards (one a delay of game it willingly took) after committing nine or more in five of the last seven games.
The Seahawks seemed to play with renewed urgency, forcing a three-and-out the first time the 49ers had the ball and driving for a field goal the first time they had it.
“I thought all the points of emphasis we made throughout the last couple of weeks of trying to take the next step as a football team really showed up,’’ Macdonald said.
Still, nothing figured to be easy, and there were a few times the Vegas oddsmakers who installed the 49ers as 61/2-point favorites looked to be prescient.
A Smith interception on the first series of the third quarter led to a 49ers field goal and a 10-6 San Francisco lead.
When the Seahawks drove for a go-ahead touchdown, the 49ers responded with one of their own to take a 17-13 lead with 9:23 to play on a 3-yard pass from Brock Purdy to Jauan Jennings. The TD was set up when Jennings bulled his way through four would-be tacklers for a few extra yards to convert a third-and-11.
The Seahawks were stopped on their next drive when they couldn’t pick up 1 yard from the San Francisco 37. First, a Smith sneak on third down was held to no gain, and a Zach Charbonnet run on fourth down was held to no gain.
The 49ers took over with 3:56 left.
And when Christian McCaffrey took the next snap for 11 yards, the game seemed about over.
But the 49ers threw incomplete on second down when Riq Woolen had tight coverage on Deebo Samuel, and safety Coby Bryant tackled Jennings 6 yards short of a first down on third down, forcing a punt.
“I thought we had a chance to put them away a number of times throughout the game,’’ said 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who called himself “just extremely disappointed.”
After the punt, the Seahawks took over at their own 20 with 2:38 remaining and one time out.
“I just looked at everybody and I told them, ‘Let’s go be great,’ ” Oluwatimi said.
Smith completed 7 of 8 passes on the drive for 54 yards and ran once for 16 to get the Seahawks close.
Four completions went to second-year receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba for 38 yards, including third-down conversions of 8 yards on third-and-5 and 15 on third-and-3.
A Smith pass to Smith-Njigba of 8 yards set up a second-and-2 at the 13 with 18 seconds left and the clock running.
Smith fielded the snap at the 18, took a few steps back to the 21 to survey the field, then took off to his left.
One key, Smith said, was realizing the 49ers were in man defense, with most of the players in the back seven had their backs turned or heading in the direction of a receiver, leaving the left side of the field wide open.
“They were dropping back pretty deep,’’ Smith said. “… I saw the lane, stepped in there, potential to maybe throw one, they plastered (meaning, covered receivers instead of heading his way) and I saw the pylon and got to it.’’
San Francisco’s all-everything linebacker Fred Warner was left helpless, shading to the other side of the field and running into Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet as he tried to give chase, slowing in resignation as he saw Smith break past the goal line.
“It’s just infuriating honestly,’’ said Warner of the 49ers blowing a fourth-quarter lead for the third time this year against an NFC West opponent. “We’ve got to find a way to win and we didn’t.’’
That’s not something any 49er has said after a Seahawks game since 2021.
It was the seventh time in the last two years Smith has led a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime, tied for the most in the NFL.
This one undoubtedly felt the best as Smith had said this week he took the team’s losing streak to the 49ers “very personal.’’ He had apologized to teammates, fans and the organization following his three interceptions in a 26-20 loss to the Rams on Nov. 3 preceding the bye.
It was the Seahawks’ third win in four road games, making up somewhat for losing the last four at home.
Along with the late-game offensive heroics, the defense played maybe its most disciplined game of the season, not allowing a gain of longer than 22 after the 49ers had two plays of 76 and two others of 29 and 38 in a 36-24 win in Seattle on Oct. 10.
It’s no coincidence the defense has turned it around since the arrival of middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV, no stranger to hard-fought games against the 49ers during his three years with the Rams.
The result left Jones thinking even better days are ahead.
“We can go out there and play with anybody,’’ Jones said. “We come out there and show what we are and play physically, be disciplined in the moments that we need to be, I think we can be something special.”