Seattle goes three-and-out on the opening drive, with the 49ers swarming and stopping Marshawn Lynch in his tracks on first and second down - but a roughing the kicker call on Tavares Gooden on fourth down gave them a first down and ten yards for their troubles. This led to a Seattle first down, which turned into another ... but the 49ers eventually got the stop and forced the second punt of the drive. Ray McDonald made two great wrap-up plays in the backfield to force fourth down, stopping lynch and a scrambling Tavaris Jackson.
The 49ers first offensive drive was even less eventful than that. After a scramble from Alex Smith, three runs to Frank Gore (one negated due to a false start from Joe Staley) later, the 49ers were punting on 4th-and-7. Not a pretty site. On the punt, the ball seemed to glance past Leon Washington, but Jim Harbaugh threw the challenge flag, contesting that the ball touched Washington as it went past. One angle shows it looking awfully close, another makes it seem like it's ... not-so-close. Either way, the referees didn't have enough evidence to overturn it and the Seahawks got the ball.
What followed was a whole lot of mediocrity offensively and some good defensive line play from both sides. Eventually, the 49ers backed the Seahawks up into their own endzone, and Jackson had to scramble out to make room for the punt. A 31-yard return from Ted Ginn set the 49ers up nicely, and they eventually made their way into the redzone ... with Alex Smith laying out two big blocks on a 12-yard run from Frank Gore. Then the first quarter came to an end.
The 49ers stall out, and David Akers gets a 27-yard field goal to put the 49ers up 3-0 in the second.