Frank Gore kept an eye on the scoreboard as he ran like mad, making sure nobody caught him on the way to the end zone.
And it wasn't even close.
"Yeah, I was looking up there," Gore said with a grin of his regular practice. "I ran all day."
Gore's spectacular afternoon single-handedly re-established the run game for San Francisco.
Gore had touchdown runs of 79 and a career-best 80 yards and finished with 207 yards on 16 carries, and the 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks 23-10 to take an early hold atop the NFC West standings.
"I told myself, 'I'm not looking back,'" Gore said. "I told myself: 'Hey, if they're going to catch me, they're going to catch me. I'm just going to look straight ahead.'"
Gore, who surpassed San Francisco's Week 1 rushing total of 21 yards in the first series, nearly reached his franchise mark of 212 yards set in 2006 before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with a sprained right ankle that wasn't considered serious. He became only the second player in NFL history to have two TD runs of 79 or more yards in the same game, joining Barry Sanders. Sanders had runs of 80 and 82 yards at Tampa Bay on Oct. 12, 1997.
"Hey, I'm happy. I didn't know that," Gore said. "We're 2-0 in our division. We proved to a lot of people we're getting better and better."
Seattle (1-1), coming off a 28-0 season-opening win at St. Louis, took a big blow losing quarterback Matt Hasselbeck to a rib injury just before halftime following a hard hit near the goal line by Patrick Willis. Hasselbeck didn't return after completing 10 of 18 passes for 97 yards and no touchdowns.
He was taken to a hospital for X-rays and a CT scan. X-rays were negative while the CT scan was inconclusive and Hasselbeck rejoined his teammates for the 2-hour flight home.
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