The 49ers took care of business in Arizona on Sunday with a win. They also got a bit of help from the Buffalo Bills.
Buffalo on Sunday afternoon throttled the Dallas Cowboys 31-10 and pushed the Cowboys to 11-4 on the year and into the No. 5 seed in the NFC. Philadelphia, which faces the Seahawks in Seattle on Monday, is the No. 2 seed and 0.5 games behind the 49ers.
San Francisco would also like to see the Eagles go down. For now though they’ll take a Cowboys loss.
Getting Dallas a game back effectively gives the 49ers a two-game lead on them since San Francisco owns the head-to-head tiebreaker. Now they have a little breathing room from both Dallas and Detroit.
Winning out should still be the priority, but getting a game clear of the Cowboys could be helpful down the stretch. If the Eagles lose as well the 49ers will have a game up on all three of the top NFC contenders with three games to go, and they’d hold head-to-head tiebreakers over two of them.