The San Francisco 49ers narrowly missed out on a chance to go to their second straight Super Bowl.

In fact, they were about six inches away from making it there, if Colin Kaepernick’s pass would miss Richard Sherman’s hand, we would be talking about the 49ers rather than the Seahawks.

Obviously, that one play is easy to point to as the reason why San Francisco lost. But that one play was symptomatic of a bigger problem that the 49ers had on offense.

Going into the game, it was obvious that it would come down to the 49ers’ offense vs. the Seahawks’ defense. If the 49ers could get close to 30 points, they would have a great chance of winning.

Kaepernick couldn’t get the 49ers to that point, mainly because of turnovers and a complete lack of a running game.

The third-year quarterback lost one fumble while he was trying to escape the pocket, and he also threw an interception in addition to the game-ending one.

While the Sherman interception at the end of the game wasn’t egregious, the first thrown to Kam Chancellor was a complete mental error.

However, he didn’t have much to work with, considering the poor performance of his receivers. Despite a spectacular touchdown catch by Anquan Boldin, he only had 53 yards after a 136-yard performance in the divisional round against the Carolina Panthers.

Sherman was only thrown at twice, shutting down his side of the field. Michael Crabtree only had four receptions on eight targets, and Vernon Davis had just two receptions for 16 yards.

Heading into the game, the 49ers knew Davis needed to have a big game if they wanted to win, but he was virtually invisible on the field at times because of Seattle’s strong secondary.

On the other side of the ball, Doug Baldwin had six receptions for 106 yards.

To be fair, the 49ers weren’t known all season for having a good passing game. But even in the running game, San Francisco was dominated by Seattle.

Kaepernick was the team’s leading rusher, carrying the ball 11 times for 130 yards. In the past four meetings between these two teams, the winner of the Frank Gore vs. Marshawn Lynch battle ended up winning the game.

In this one, Lynch completely dominated. Gore only averaged 1.3 yards per carry, and ended up getting out-gained by his backup, Kendall Hunter, by two yards on eight less carries.

Despite a goal line fumble, Lynch  still finished the game with 109 yards on 22 carries, and he scored a touchdown.

Kaepernick’s rush yards also came on a lot of scrambles out of the pocket, with San Francisco’s receivers unable to get open, and the offensive line allowing Seattle’s defensive line to break into the pocket.

It might sound too cut-and-dry, but this game really did come down to San Francisco’s offense hitting a complete brick wall in Seattle’s defense.