Rashid Shaheed’s early touchdown sparks dominant Seattle win over San Francisco
Seattle knew it’d need a few explosive plays against San Francisco in Saturday night’s Divisional round to advance to next weekend’s NFC Championship game.
It didn’t take long to find the first.
Rashid Shaheed took the game’s opening kickoff at Lumen Field, found a crease in the middle of the field and boom — 95 yards, to the house.
He even evaded a half-hearted, leg sweep tripping effort from 49ers kicker Eddy Pineiro on his jaunt to the stadium’s south end zone.
“That was a crazy moment,” Shaheed said. “Built momentum for the rest of the game. I don’t know what to say — that was just a crazy experience, shoutout to (special teams coach) Jay Harbaugh putting us, all 11 guys on the right page each and every week. Big shoutout to him.”
And yes, Shaheed felt the kicker’s failed leg sweep attempt.
“It was crazy,” he said, laughing. “I was like, ‘Did I just feel a foot?’ Yeah, no, that was funny.”
It gave the Seahawks a 7-0 lead just seconds into the game, sending an already juiced-up Lumen Field crowd into an early frenzy, the starting point of a crescendo of first-half noise from the fans decked out in blue and green. Seattle went on to win the game in dominant fashion, 41-6.
“It just showed how prepared we were to come out and dominate,” Shaheed said. “That was our mindset the whole week, that’s our mindset each and every game and that’s what we came out to do and it started with special teams and kind of carried throughout the rest of the game.”
That home run ability is why Seahawks’ general manager John Schneider and head coach Mike Macdonald traded for Shaheed (acquired from New Orleans) in November. On both special teams and on offense, they viewed Shaheed as lightning in a bottle — a game changer because of his speed.
Shaheed was an All-Pro kick returner in 2023. That ability showed up again on the first play of Saturday’s game and has been on display at other points of Seattle’s run, most notably with a 58-yard punt return touchdown against the Rams in Week 16, igniting a Seattle comeback win against its NFC West rival.
The touchdown return was Shaheed’s second career kickoff return for a touchdown, the other also coming in a Seattle uniform in a win over Atlanta in December.
Shaheed also drew a timely pass interference call on San Francisco in the first quarter, leading to a Sam Darnold to Jaxon Smith-Njigba touchdown pass that gave Seattle a 17-0 lead.
Seattle will host the winner of Sunday’s Divisional matchup between the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams in next Sunday’s NFC Championship game.
This story was originally published January 17, 2026 at 8:18 PM.
