It was December 29, 2019, and the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks were playing for keeps. In the game’s final seconds, with the 49ers up, 26-21, Seattle’s Jacob Hollister was stopped inches from the goal line by San Francisco linebacker Dre Greenlaw. The Niners won the NFC West and were the NFC’s #1 seed on their way to the Super Bowl.
Ended the 100th @NFL regular season with a bang.@DreGreenlaw put it all on the goal line. pic.twitter.com/2D2zqIzWvz
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) January 1, 2020
This week, ahead of today’s matchup at CenturyLink Field, the 49ers remembered those final seconds and what was going through their minds.
Kyle Shanahan
“In terms of, it was very clear, you’re just completely locked in and just watching the moment and sitting there wishing you could do something about it and just sitting there, just watching your guys. It’s just completely silent, at least that’s how it feels to me. I feel like you can’t hear anything and then all of a sudden, everyone just erupts on our sideline. I’ve been burned before where I erupt and it ends up being overturned or something like that. So, even though I watched ours guys run all the way to the other way and everyone was celebrating, it took me about five minutes before I fully accepted it and it wasn’t until we fully had the ball, until we were actually on the field that I knew that we had won, but it was a cool moment.”
Jimmy Garoppolo
“”Yeah. I don’t even, yeah, I really didn’t even watch it. It was just such a, you do everything you can and then, like you said, it comes down to that one moment, that one play and, Dre made a phenomenal play and I didn’t even watch it I’m pretty sure to be honest with you. But, then just the emotions that came in after that, it was something else.”
George Kittle
“I mean, it was an amazing play, but that was a very brutal series, because you know it was the last series of the game and the offense wasn’t going to get another shot. So that’s always tough, when it’s not in your hands. But our defense, the way that they played all year last year. I mean, I knew that they were going to get the stop, but still, this being in Seattle with that stadium with the crowd, anxiety was definitely through the roof. It was a great anxiety, I loved it.”
The 49ers and Seahawks kick off today at 1:25 pm PT on FOX. The crowd won’t be a factor today, as both teams compete in a crucial game. Seattle sits at 5-1 and San Francisco at 4-3. Let’s go!
