The 49ers had plenty of defensive weapons for the Seahawks to worry about in Week 4. Nick Bosa and Arik Armstead are terrifying to opposing quarterbacks off the edge, both ranking in Pro Football Focus's top-ten edge defenders through four weeks. Fred Warner is a top-tier linebacker, ranked No. 1 at the position by PFF in 2020 and touted by Aaron Rodgers as "possibly" the best middle linebacker in the league. And though losing Jason Verrett is undoubtedly a big blow, the team's pass defense has allowed a bottom-ten yardage total to opponents to this point in the season.
So when Russell Wilson prepared a game plan for his offense entering the division contest, he wanted to make sure they were especially ready and focused on the matchup at hand. In fact, to make sure they were awake, he slipped in a name that doesn't appear all too often on the defensive side of the ball for San Francisco, though his sideline presence is a commanding one.
That's right: 49ers mascot Sourdough Sam apparently made an appearance on the scouting report that Wilson put together for his teammates, and it's probably no coincidence that the team's top performer was someone who caught it.
To be fair, Sourdough Sam seems like he's probably be a force to be reckoned with out on the field, seeing as he's the "hardest working mascot in the NFL" and "stays in such great shape by playing and exercising outside for 60 minutes a day." If that's not an NFL-ready body to defend against Metcalf and co., I don't know what is.
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Whatever else Wilson's notes contained must have worked, as they came away with a 28-21 victory... though it's not as if the offense was churning out a bunch of yards. In fact, Seattle only generated 234 yards of offense while conceding 457 on the defensive side, though costly SF turnovers aided their cause. According to Stathead, that's only the 32nd time in NFL history where the winning team compiled 250 or fewer yards while the losing team totaled over 450. Still, Metcalf was ready and he delivered when it counted, and the rest of the team should follow suit to be as prepared as possible week in and week out.
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