The 49ers’ win over the Seahawks greatly reduced their number of playoff scenarios. They’ve gone from being mathematically capable of landing at any of the seven seeds or missing the playoffs, to clinching a playoff berth and following no lower than the No. 3 seed.
San Francisco no longer needs to worry about wild card teams as competitors for playoff spots now that it’s been crowned the NFC West champion. They don’t even need to look down at the No. 4 seed Buccaneers since they own the head-to-head tiebreaker with them. The 49ers’ focus now is up.
Here are the two games that matter for the 49ers from a seeding perspective:
Colts at Vikings
Eagles at Bears
The 49ers are a half game behind the Vikings for the No. 2 seed, and a loss by Minnesota on Saturday morning would drop them to 10-4 and move the 49ers to the No. 2 spot since they own the tiebreaker. This game is slated to kick off at 10:00am Pacific Time on Saturday.
The No. 1 seed is much longer shot for San Francisco. They’d need the 12-1 Eagles to lose the rest of their games, or at least three of their final four. In that case the 49ers would also need to win out. Chances are they won’t catch Philly, but a loss by the Eagles on Sunday in Chicago would at least make things interesting. The Eagles and Bears kick off at 10:00am PT on Sunday.
