The 49ers’ task Sunday night in Seattle is simple: Win and they clinch the NFC West title, the No. 1 overall conference seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
The Seahawks’ task is equally as simple: Win and they clinch the NFC West title and at least one home playoff game.
Both teams already have clinched playoff berths. Now it’s a matter of seeding. The loser of this game will have to pursue a Super Bowl berth on the road as a wild-card entrant.
The 49ers can finish anywhere from the No. 1 seed to No. 5. The Seahawks can finish anywhere from the No. 1 (with outside help from the Packers and Saints) through 3 seeds with a win or fall to a No. 5 with a loss.
In the teams’ previous meeting, the Seahawks beat the 49ers, 27-24, on Jason Myers’ 42-yard field goal on the final play of the game on Nov. 11 in Santa Clara, Calif. So, if the Seahawks (11-4) win, they will win the NFC West by virtue of sweeping the season series.
The 49ers (12-3) are 6-1 on the road and their quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, owns a 20-5 career record as a starter.
Since 2010, the Seahawks, at CenturyLink Stadium, have been trouble for opposing quarterbacks with 25 or fewer NFL starts, winning 22 of 28.
“They’ve had as good of a 10-year run defensively as probably anyone in the history of football,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters this week of the Seahawks. “Then you add in the elements of their stadium, where you can’t hear. When you can’t use cadence and you’re going up against a very skilled team with a pass rush, it’s extremely hard.”
Garoppolo hasn’t started a game in Seattle, because he was out with a knee injury last season when the teams played there, so he has not experienced the noise that comes from Seahawks’ infamous “12th Man.’’
“There’s a chance they’re going to be frickin’ flying off the top of the roof, and there’s a really good chance it’s going to be as loud as it ever gets and as exciting as it ever gets,’’ Seahawks coach Pete Carroll told reporters this week, predicting the tenor of the home crowd.
Russell Wilson and Jimmy GaroppoloGetty Images (2)The closest Garoppolo has come to a noisy road game came Dec. 8 in New Orleans, where he threw for 349 yards and four TD passes in a 48-46 Niners win. In the November home loss to the Seahawks, however, Garoppolo lost two fumbles and had a quarterback rating of 66.2.
Adding even more intrigue to this game is the return of running back Marshawn Lynch, whom Seattle re-signed this week after he had been out of football all season. Lynch last played with Seattle in 2016, but a rash of injuries at running back (starter Chris Carson and backup C.J. Prosise were lost for the season last week) had the Seahawks desperate, so they reached out to Lynch.
“What I needed to hear from him is where his heart is. Is he in it and does he want to go for it?’’ Carroll told reporters. “He totally does. He’s worked to prove that.’’
While Lynch will be available, the heaviest workload is expected to go to rookie sixth-round pick Travis Homer, who not long ago was Seattle’s No. 4 running back.
What can Lynch contribute right away?
“We’ll find out how he can play and how he does,” Carroll said. “It’s been a little while off. He’s ready to take the full opportunity at hand and see what he can do to help us.”
Whatever Lynch does on Sunday night in the final regular-season game to the 2019 schedule, it adds juice to a game already packed with drama and playoff implications.
“I think it’s everything,” San Francisco fullback Kyle Juszczyk told reporters after the 49ers’ win over the Rams last week. “These are the kind of games that you dream about when you are a kid.’’
