SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It’s taken them much of the season, but the Seattle Seahawks have apparently recaptured the mojo that led them to their first Super Bowl championship in franchise history last year.

Four days after beating the Arizona Cardinals 19-3, the Seahawks dominated the San Francisco 49ers by the same score Thursday night at Levi’s Stadium.

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson passed for 236 yards and a touchdown, running back Marshawn Lynch rushed for 104 yards on 20 carries, and cornerback Richard Sherman intercepted two passes, keying another dominant performance by the NFL’s No. 1-ranked defense.

“Guys were playing fast, weren’t thinking about mistakes,” Sherman said. “Stuffing the run. It feels a lot like last year. Marshawn’s running the football. We were controlling the game.”

The Seahawks (8-4) pulled to within 1 1/2 games of Arizona (9-2) in the West and improved their position in the wild-card playoff race. The 49ers (7-5), meanwhile, fell 2 1/2 games behind the Cardinals, and suffered a blow to their wild-card hopes.

The Seahawks and 49ers met for the first time since Seattle’s 23-17 victory Jan. 19 in the NFC Championship game at Seattle. Seattle defeated San Francisco for the fourth time in the past five meetings but for the first time on the road since Oct. 26, 2008. The teams will meet again Dec. 14 at Seattle.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll praised his team for playing “a real solid game across the board” in all phases, but he had special praise for his defense, which held the 49ers to 164 total yards.

“These guys have joined together and recaptured what we played with last year,” Carroll said. “There’s no question in the last two weeks we’ve elevated our game.”

Seattle’s offense gained 379 yards against a 49ers defense that came into the game ranked No. 2 in the league. Wilson completed 15 of 22 passes and had a passer rating of 118.8.

Seahawks place-kicker Steven Hauschka made all four of his field goal attempts, connecting from 21, 35, 40 and 46 yards.

“This is how we want to feel,” Wilson said. “This is how we want to be. We are going in the right direction.”

The loss did not sit well with 49ers CEO Jed York, who apologized on Twitter for his team’s poor play.

“This performance wasn’t acceptable,” York wrote. “I apologize for that.”

San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick had another rough day against the Seahawks, completing 16 of 29 passes for a season-low 121 yards with two interceptions and a passer rating of 36.7, another season worst. Entering the game, Kaepernick had a career passer rating against Seattle of 54.0 with seven interceptions and three touchdowns.

What the Seahawks said:

“This is what we’re capable of doing, and obviously we’ve been able to do it for a couple of weeks, but we have to follow it up with one of the best teams in the league next time. We’ll see what happens. They have a great offense and all that, so we’ll see. This is just tonight and we’ll take that next step next week and see where we go.” — coach Pete Carroll on his defense’s recent surge and its upcoming challenge against the Philadelphia Eagles

What the 49ers said:

“I know we have great players in here on the offensive side of the ball. We just have to go out there and do it. Things just aren’t clicking for us. I just think we need to look at ourselves as a whole and do better.” — running back Frank Gore

What we learned about the Seahawks

1. Their defense has recaptured its dominant form of last season’s Super Bowl run. The Seahawks held San Francisco to 164 total yards on offense and QB Colin Kaepernick to a season-low 121 passing yards and zero touchdowns. “We were having a good time,” said cornerback Richard Sherman, who had two interceptions. “We’re playing like some 9- or 10-year olds, not worrying about the outcome or individual stats. When we play like that we’re real hard to beat.”

2. Running back Marshawn Lynch is back in beast mode, just in time for Seattle’s stretch run. He carried 20 times for 104 yards against the 49ers. That marked his third 100-yard rushing game in the past four weeks. He cracked the 100-yard rushing mark once in the first eight games. “It was great seeing Marshawn run so hard,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “He was hammering the football. The guys up front did a nice job against a tough defense.”

–RB Marshawn Lynch carried 20 times for 104 yards Thursday night in a 19-3 victory against San Francisco. He ran for over 100 yards for the third time in his past four games. Lynch rushed for over 100 yards just once in his first eight games. He leads the Seahawks with 956 rushing yards on 212 carries. He’s closing in on his fourth straight and sixth overall 1,000-yard rushing season.

–CB Richard Sherman intercepted two passes Thursday against the 49ers, giving him a team-high three thefts for the season. Sherman’s first interception of a Colin Kaepernick pass, set up Seattle’s only touchdown of the game, in the first quarter. He added an interception in the fourth quarter of Seattle’s 19-3 victory. The Seahawks now have nine interceptions.

–QB Russell Wilson completed 15 of 22 passes for 236 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions Thursday night in a 19-3 victory against the 49ers. He had a passer rating of 118.8 and also ran seven times for 35 yards. Wilson had a long pass of 63 yards to TE Tony Moeaki and hit RB Robert Turbin on a 13-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter.

What we learned about the 49ers

1. One more bad loss and they just might implode. After Sunday’s embarrassing 19-3 loss to Seattle, 49ers CEO Jed York took to Twitter and apologized to 49ers fans. “This performance wasn’t acceptable,” York wrote. “I apologize for that.”

2. If quarterback Colin Kaepernick doesn’t get back on track in a hurry, the 49ers have no shot at making the playoffs. In arguably the 49ers most important game of the season Thursday, Kaepnerick played his worst game. He completed 16 of 29 passes for a season-low 121 yards and a 36.7 passer rating, another season low. He had two interceptions — both by Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, his nemesis — and zero touchdown passes. After playing the Raiders next week, Kaepernick has to face Sherman and the Seahawks again, this time at Seattle. The 49ers can’t afford a repeat performance from their quarterback. “I didn’t play well tonight,” Kaepernick said. “If your quarterback doesn’t play well, it’s going to be hard for you to win games.”

–QB Colin Kaepernick had another nightmare performance Thursday against the Seahawks in a 19-3 loss. Kaepernick completed 16 of 29 passes for a season-low 121 yards with two interceptions and a passer rating of 36.7, another season worst. Entering the game, Kaepernick had a career passer rating against Seattle of 54.0 with seven interceptions and three touchdowns.

–LB Chris Borland had a team-high 15 tackles Thursday against Seattle, all of them solo. The rookie from Wisconsin leads the 49ers with 102 tackles. Borland, who replaced the injured Patrick Willis in the lineup earlier this season, made his sixth start Sunday.

–RB Frank Gore rushed for only 28 yards on 10 carries Thursday night in a 19-3 loss to Seattle. Gore averaged 2.8 yards per carry with a long run of seven yards. In his previous game against Washington, Gore rushed for only 36 yards on 13 carries.