Two Seattle players left Sunday's road game against the San Francisco 49ers early because of knee injuries, with Seahawks safety Bradley McDougald exiting in the second quarter and right guard Jordan Simmons leaving in the third.

McDougald, whose ongoing patellar tendon issues had him listed as questionable for the Seahawks' Week 15 matchup at Levi's Stadium, had the injury flare up following a particular play and couldn't respond, said Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll.  

"His knee flared up again. He's got a patellar tendinitis thing that he deals with and it flared up again," Carroll said following his team's 26-23 overtime loss that moved the club's record to 8-6 on the season. "Planted it in the ground and it bit and he couldn't answer it, couldn't get the strength back."

Delano Hill stepped in at safety following McDougald's exit. Carroll noted McDougald's absence was felt at first, but said the Seattle defense settled down and played better in the second half.

"I think kind of immediately following his departure from there, I thought we were a little shaky a little bit. I don't think we were as confident with our calls and we gave up some stuff that we wouldn't normally give up," Carroll said. "I think we settled down well and we kind of kept it under wraps in the second half. Really in the second half the defense did a good job."

Simmons, meanwhile, left the game with a sore knee, an injury Carroll said the team should "know way more in the next couple days" about. Ethan Pocic filled in at right guard with Simmons sidelined.

"At this point they would say it's a first-degree sprain," Carroll said of Simmons' knee injury. "Don't know what that means for him coming back. We'll just have to wait and see when we get back and all that."