The San Francisco 49ers will look to secure both the NFC West and top seed in the conference with a win on Sunday Night Football over the Seattle Seahawks. The regular-season finale will determine what the NFC's pecking order will be this postseason, and there are three outcomes from which the already playoff-bound Niners will secure.
The Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints both won their Week 17 games, yet that won't matter much if San Francisco secures the win over Seattle. Should that be the case, the Niners would secure the No. 1 seed, a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
If the Niners lose, however, the Seahawks would secure the NFC West crown but would not get a first-round bye in the process. The byes would go to the Packers and Saints, with Green Bay securing the No. 1 overall seed. San Francisco, meanwhile, would be forced to play in the Wild Card round as the No. 5 seed, on the road against the Philadelphia Eagles, whose win over the New York Giants ensured they'd secure the NFC East over the Dallas Cowboys.
There's another scenario in play, too: a possible tie between the 49ers and Seahawks.
Should the Niners and Seahawks wind up tying, San Francisco would still end up winning the division. But the 49ers wouldn't be a top-two seed, dropping to No. 3 and being forced to host the No. 6 seed, the Minnesota Vikings, in the Wild Card round.
Needless to say, the 49ers pulling off a win at CenturyLink Field -- something they haven't done since December of 2011 -- would be the best-case scenario.
Peter Panacy has been writing about the 49ers since 2011 for outlets like Bleacher Report, Niner Noise, 49ers Webzone, and is occasionally heard as a guest on San Francisco's 95.7 FM The Game and the Niners' flagship station, KNBR 680. Feel free to follow him, or direct any inquiries to his Twitter account.
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