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SAN FRANCISCO – Jim Mora had ample excused at his disposal, but the Seahawks’ first-year head coach refused to use any of them after his team couldn’t control Frank Gore or a mounting injury situation on Sunday.

Gore, San Francisco’s rampaging running back, had 80- and 79-yard touchdown runs as part of his 207-yard outing as the 49ers slapped the Seahawks with a 23-10 loss at Candlestick Park. Each long run came against a Seahawks’ defense that was stacked in an eight-man front to stop him.

The Seahawks came into the battle of 1-0 NFC West teams minus five injured starters, and then lost four more during the game – including quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who was taken to the hospital for tests that showed he bruised a rib after a collision with 49ers’ linebacker Patrick Willis on a second-quarter scramble.

Middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu started the game, but couldn’t finish because of the hamstring he strained in last week’s opener. Left tackle Sean Locklear and cornerback Josh Wilson also went down during the game with sprained ankles and did not return.

The Seahawks already were playing without Pro Bowl tackle Walter Jones, center Chris Spencer, cornerback Marcus Trufant, linebacker Leroy Hill and defensive tackle Brandon Mebane.

Reasons? Yes. Excuses? Never. Not if Mora has anything to say about it.

“We can’t let excuses creep into our culture,” Mora said following the disappointing loss – his first after guiding the team through a 4-0 preseason and then a 28-0 shutout of the St. Louis Rams in the opener.

“You’ve got to overcome injuries. We had (all) those starters not playing, but nobody cares.”

Certainly not Deon Grant, the team’s strong safety and a defensive co-captain.

“We didn’t do the job, and I don’t care who was playing,” he said. “We didn’t get it done. The 49ers brought their A game, and we played our F game.”

On the play after Hasselbeck tried to make it to the sideline, but then needed help, Seneca Wallace took over and threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to running back Julius Jones to cut the 49ers’ lead to 13-10 at halftime.

But on the first play of the second half, Gore broke his 80-yarder and that proved to be more than enough on this day.

“That was just Frank being Frank,” rookie linebacker Aaron Curry said.

The Seahawks had seen this matinee before. In a 2006 game at Candlestick, Gore ran for 212 yards against the Seahawks – but he never made it into the end zone. Sunday, both his long run came on the first plays of possessions. His 79-yarder in the first quarter took 12 seconds, the 80-yarder in the third quarter 11 seconds.

Twenty three seconds. Fourteen points. All by No. 21.

Each of the long runs was right up the gut, where Mebane and Tatupu should have been. Each came with the Seahawks crowding the line, but then losing gap integrity. So when Gore blew through creases in the middle of the line, there were not enough able bodies to pull him down or chase him down.

“Really, it came down to two plays,” said defensive end Patrick Kerney, who was not on the field for the first and admitted he did not make the proper read on the second. “They executed, and we didn’t.

“It’s like coach Mora is always preaching: There are no such things as little things.”

When Mora stood before his players in the locker room, and then the media in the interview room, he had plenty of reasons as to why this had happened to a team that talked all week about the need to contain Gore. But he refused to make excuses, and he wants none from his players as they prepare for Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears at Qwest Field – or at least those players healthy enough to play.

“Our men are not dejected. They’re not saying, ‘Here we go again,’ ” Mora said, an obvious reference to last year’s injury-ravaged season. “There’s none of that in there. If that was permeating the locker room, there’d be cause for concern.”

But that was not the case, which leaves Mora confident that his team will bounce back from an effort where they simply were outplayed – and the inability to contain an old nemesis.