It’s hard to find an NFC game Sunday with more consequence than 49ers vs. Saints. The showdown between 10-2 clubs has the feel of a playoff game thanks in part to the 49ers’ chase for the NFC West crown, and the jockeying for a first-round bye between those two clubs, Green Bay and Minnesota.
The gravity of the matchup shows in how much coverage the game will get on the FOX morning broadcast map.
Here’s what the map looks like, via 506 Sports. The 49ers and Saints dominate the coverage in red:
The yellow portion will see Lions at Vikings. The green will get Washington at Green Bay, and orange belongs to Panthers at Falcons. The blue areas will carry Chargers at Jaguars in the afternoon.
This is a good reflection of how the 49ers’ season has turned around. It was nearly impossible early in the season for San Francisco and their opponent to get anything outside of very localized coverage. Now they’re getting virtually a national broadcast.
One other NFC game that carries weight will show on Sunday Night Football between the Seahawks and Rams. That game in Los Angeles will have a huge impact on the playoff race, but that will be affected by how the 49ers-Saints game goes.
There’s still a lot of football to go in the regular season, but Week 14 will get the ball rolling heavily toward one outcome in the NFC. That’ll begin with 49ers at Saints, and they’ll get the television coverage to show it.