John Lynch was every 49ers fan as the Seahawks broke San Francisco's back

Something about the San Francisco 49ers giving up 3rd-and-longs to basically end their seasons.

They did it during that first Super Bowl loss against the Kansas City Chiefs, and they did it again on Saturday night against the Seattle Seahawks as they allowed a back-breaking run that effectively ended the game.

Niners general manager John Lynch's reaction to the play was caught on camera, and it was probably not too dissimilar from most San Francisco fans:

Facing a 3rd-and-17 in the third quarter, Seattle's offense essentially conceded that it was willing to punt. All the Seahawks wanted was about 5 yards, so they could gain a little better field position after punting it back to San Francisco.

Instead, Kenneth Walker easily made his way through a porous 49ers defense on a simple pitch and got a first down. Seattle went down and scored a field goal on that drive to make the game 13-3, which is what the final score ended up being.

To add insult to injury, just a few plays prior, the Niners could have had a momentum-shifting play as Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold fumbled the football and defensive lineman Yetur Gross-Matos had the ball right in his hands, but could not secure it.

That was arguably the real back-breaker, but that complete defensive collapse on third down truly sealed the deal.

All in all, it is a miracle the 49ers only allowed 13 points on defense. Seattle was able to move the ball, especially on the ground, at will for most of the game, but the defense did come up with some big stops and got lucky with Seattle's head coach, Mike Macdonald, deciding to go for it on fourth down early in the game, and the typically reliable placekicker, Jason Meyer missed two field-goal attempts.

The defense did enough to win, but San Francisco's offense just could not get anything going against a stout Seahawks defense. It did not help not having left tackle Trent Williams or wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, but the 49ers just couldn't sustain anything except for one of their final drives, which culminated in an interception right when they were getting near the end zone.

Lynch has seen enough heartbreak from this team that he should not be too surprised, though. He has seen all of this before. We all have. Maybe we should have known better than to get our hopes up yet again.

It would have taken a miracle for the Niners to win the Super Bowl even if they had beaten Seattle.

Now, it will take something unthinkable.