Kurtenbach: The 49ers’ carpet ride hit a wall in Seattle. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t magic

SEATTLE — If your favorite football team just got vaporized 41-6 by their most hated rivals in a playoff game that looked less like a sporting event and more like a National Geographic documentary on apex predators toying with their prey, how would you want them to react?

Would you want them smashing Gatorade coolers? Tossing helmets? Pointing fingers? Perhaps trashing the visiting locker room like a hair metal band in 1987?

Or maybe you’d prefer the quiet, despondent look—staring into the middle distance...