Tag: NFL Scores

Which games on Week 13 NFL schedule can help 49ers playoff hopes?

Here are the Week 13 games that impact the 49ers playoff hopes.

The San Francisco 49ers, despite careening toward the abyss of NFL mediocrity, still have a path to the postseason as they enter their Week 13 showdown against the Buffalo Bills.

Yet, thanks to the rest of the NFC West’s tussle with the .500 mark, there’s a clear way for the 49ers to win the division and punch their ticket to the playoffs.

Here are the Week 13 games that will impact the 49ers’ playoff chances and which team the 49ers need to win:

Cardinals (6-5) at Vikings (9-2)

49ers need: A Vikings win. Every NFC West loss is gold for the 49ers.

Spread: Vikings (-3.5)

Seahawks (6-5) at Jets (3-8)

49ers need: A Jets win. See above.

Spread: Seahawks (-2)

Titans (3-8) at Commanders (7-5)

49ers need: A Commanders loss, although the 49ers can render Washington’s involvement moot by stringing together wins while the other clubs in the division start stacking up a few losses. Washington is the No. 7 seed entering Week 13.

Spread: Commanders (-5.5)

Buccaneers (5-6) at Panthers (3-8)

49ers need: The 49ers have a head-to-head tiebreaker on Tampa Bay, but another 5-6 team getting a loss is helpful, so a Panthers win is ideal for San Francisco.

Spread: Buccaneers (-6)

Rams (5-6) at Saints (4-7)

49ers need: Another NFC West game means another game the 49ers need the NFC West foe to lose. A Rams win wouldn’t be terrible since it would further remove New Orleans from the conversation, but the NFC West loss is preferred.

Spread: Rams (-2.5)

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49ers schedule: Week 11 game vs. Seahawks a virtual must-win

The 49ers need to beat the Seahawks for a bunch of reasons.

There’s a clear path to the postseason for the San Francisco 49ers that started in Week 10 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and continues in Week 11 against the Seattle Seahawks.

The game at Tampa Bay was a virtual must-win for the previously 4-4 49ers. A loss to fall to 4-5 could have been catastrophic. Alas, they pulled out a 23-20 victory on the road. While it was a significant win, it was only Step 1 for the 49ers. Perhaps more important is Sunday’s matchup against the Seattle Seahawks.

It doesn’t appear as though the 49ers’ road back to the playoffs will ever be easy this season. They could simply win the rest of their games and punch their ticket that way, but with games coming up in Green Bay, in Buffalo, at home against the Lions, Dolphins and Rams, and in Arizona, the likelihood they win out is slim. That puts a handful of other scenarios on the table.

There are too many different ways this can all play out to start listing them here, but there’s a real chance tiebreakers come into play for either the division or a wild card spot. The bottom line for Sunday’s game is that the 49ers can’t drop another game in the division after losing to the Cardinals and Rams earlier in the year.

NFL tiebreakers for the division start with head-to-head record. The 49ers would sweep the season series with the Seahawks with a win Sunday and climb further ahead of them in the standings. If the teams split their head-to-head matchups, which the 49ers would if they beat the Rams and Cardinals, then the next tiebreaker is record within the division.

San Francisco needs a trio of wins in the division down the stretch, and their second time through the NFC West begins Sunday.

There’s a wild card element to factor in as well.

The first tiebreaker for wild card teams is head-to-head matchup. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it next week when the 49ers visit the No. 7 seed Green Bay Packers. The next tiebreaker is conference record, and San Francisco’s three NFC losses early in the year put them behind the curve in that category.

Racking up NFC wins is going to be imperative to not only have a playoff-caliber record, but also for getting a potential tiebreaker edge.

San Francisco could still make the postseason if they lose Sunday. A win makes the path much easier though, and finding out what it looks like with a loss to Seattle is probably a version of the playoff picture they’ll want to avoid.

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Week 9 NFL scores were mostly bad news for 49ers

Week 9 scores weren’t kind to the 49ers …

The San Francisco 49ers got to sit back and watch Week 9 NFL action and hope for some beneficial results.

They got mostly bad news as the dust settled on Sunday’s slate of games, and they didn’t move up or down in the NFC West.

In some bad news, the Arizona Cardinals throttled the Chicago Bears 29-9 in Arizona. That victory moved the Cardinals to 5-4 overall, putting them a full game up on the 49ers in the division with the head-to-head tiebreaker in hand at least until they play again in Week 18.

In more neutral news, the Seattle Seahawks took a loss at home to the Los Angeles Rams. Seattle is now in last in the division at 4-5, while the Rams moved to 4-4 and into a tie for second place with the 49ers. LA is technically ahead of the 49ers because they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.

With the win by the Cardinals, the 49ers were locked in to third place in the division. At 5-4, Arizona was guaranteed to hold at least a share of first place, but the Rams-Seahawks loser was going to end up in last place with the 4-4 49ers holding firm in third.

We can also virtually rule out any chance of San Francisco securing the No. 1 seed in the NFC this season after the Detroit Lions obliterated the Green Bay Packers 24-14 in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score. Detroit is now 7-1 overall and doesn’t seem primed to lose as many games as they’ll need to lose for the 49ers to eclipse them.

The rest of this season is officially about the NFC West for the 49ers since they’re now fighting uphill for the division. Seeding may matter down the line, but for now their four losses are two more than four of the seven playoff teams.

San Francisco will be in action on the road in Week 10 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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NFL standings: 49ers back out of playoff picture after Week 7 action

The 49ers are in a bad spot when it comes to the playoff hunt.

What a difference a week makes.

The San Francisco 49ers were riding high after a Week 6 road win over the Seattle Seahawks that launched them from the No. 14 seed in the NFC to the No. 4 seed thanks to their new lead in the NFC West.

Then came Week 7.

In Week 7 not only did the 49ers lose, they were the only NFC West team that didn’t win. Instead of sitting atop the division and holding onto a playoff spot, San Francisco now finds itself in survival mode just trying to get back into the playoff picture.

Seattle leads the NFC West at 4-3. The Arizona Cardinals are in second place at 3-4 thanks to their head-to-head tiebreaker over the 3-4 49ers.

It’s imperative to note there are still 11 weeks of football to go and the NFC West doesn’t have a dominant force the 49ers can’t overcome. However, there are a slew of teams ahead of San Francisco that are just playing better football through seven weeks.

The No. 1 seed Detroit Lions have hit their stride, as has virtually the entire NFC North. Minnesota, Green Bay and Chicago hold seed Nos. 5-7 to round out the playoff picture. Washington is the No. 2 seed and looks unstoppable on offense. NFC West leader Seattle is in the No. 3 spot, and the Falcons are the No. 4 seed as the NFC South leaders.

We can scrap thoughts of the No. 1 seed for the 49ers. It feels out of reach even if San Francisco wins out. They just need to start stringing together some wins to get back into the playoff picture to begin with and separating themselves from some of the NFC’s bottom dwellers.

Once they do that we can start to worry about seeding. For now, they just need to get into that conversation.

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Has negative rest differential hurt 49ers this season?

How much has rest differential hurt the 49ers so far in 2024?

The San Francisco 49ers for the last two seasons have been up against the dreaded ‘rest differential‘ thanks to their schedule.

A key talking point when the NFL releases its full schedule is the number of days a team has off between games compared to its opponent. If Teams A and B face off after having played the previous Sunday, the rest differential is zero for both teams. If Team A played Monday night, and Team B played Sunday, Team B would have a plus-one rest differential when facing Team A the following Sunday.

The 49ers have been on the wrong side of the rest differential by historical proportions in each of their last two schedules. In 2023 they had the sixth-worst rest differential of all-time. This year they have the third-worst.

In 2023 it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of the season as the 49ers finished 12-5 and snagged the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

So far in 2024 it hasn’t mattered much either.

San Francisco through six weeks has yet to play a game with a positive rest differential, and there’s no clear evidence that being at a rest disadvantage has actually hurt the 49ers.

They had neutral rest differentials in Week 1, Week 3, Week 5 and Week 6.

In Week 1 they beat the Jets. They lost in Weeks 3 and 5 to the Rams and Cardinals, respectively. Then they beat the Seahawks on Thursday Night Football in Week 6.

In Week 2, thanks to a Week 1 Monday Night Football game, the 49ers were a minus-1 rest differential in a loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

On the other hand, the Patriots had a plus-three rest differential in Week 4 when they visited Levi’s Stadium, and San Francisco handled them with relative ease.

Now it’s up to the 49ers to continue shrugging off rest disadvantages because they’re going to have two big ones entering their next two games.

The Chiefs, who were on a bye in Week 6, will have a plus-three rest differential at Levi’s Stadium in Week 7.

Then the 49ers host the Cowboys in Week 8 after Dallas has its bye in Week 7. That means they’ll have a plus-seven differential when they visit San Francisco.

While the rest advantage is a preseason talking point, the 49ers don’t have the margin for error to use it as an excuse. They overcame a season full of tough schedule spots last year, and they did it once already this year. That trend needs to continue heading into their Week 9 bye if they want to put themselves in position to potentially push for the No. 1 seed again.

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NFC standings: Week 6 vs. Seahawks is virtual ‘must win’ for 49ers

Week 6 is basically a must-win for the 49ers, and the standings show why.

The NFL standings don’t generally matter much after five weeks.

In an 18-week season injuries are prevalent, trades happen, and teams either hit their stride or fall off throughout the year, and the picture painted with the final standings rarely reflects what we see after a sample size of five games.

On the other hand, this year’s standings in the NFC put into perspective just how poorly the San Francisco 49ers’ season has gone, and the climb they have to get back into the postseason picture.

San Francisco after five weeks is sitting at No. 14 out of 16 NFC teams. The only teams behind them are the Los Angeles Rams and Carolina Panthers. Both of those teams are 1-4, and the Rams’ lone win came against the 49ers at SoFi Stadium in Week 3.

It’s been an abject disaster to start the year for the 49ers, and while the standings paint a bleak picture now, there are some silver linings.

Typically under Kyle Shanahan the 49ers have played their best football in November, December and January. They’re one of five NFC teams with two wins, and a win over the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night would put them atop the NFC West and into the No. 4 seed in the standings. That fact is why there’s no reason to hit the panic button just yet.

On the other hand, a loss to Seattle might be reason to panic. Dropping to 2-4 overall, 0-4 in the conference and 0-3 in the division with games against the undefeated Chiefs and the 3-2 Cowboys looming would put the 49ers in a bind that virtually eliminated their margin for error while they simultaneously try and right a rapidly sinking ship.

The standings through five weeks don’t tell the story of the entire season, but they paint a pretty clear picture of what’s at stake for the 49ers when they visit Seattle on Thursday.

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49ers can confirm status as NFC West favorites with good Week 1 showing

The 49ers’ division rivals had a rocky first week.

The San Francisco 49ers will take the field Monday night with a chance to confirm their status as the NFC West favorites.

Only the Seattle Seahawks were winners in the division in Week 1. They knocked off the Denver Broncos 26-20 at home and never looked particularly impressive in the victory. Seattle averaged 5.1 yards per play, allowed two safeties, and only won by six in a game where they held their opponent (with a rookie quarterback) to 3.3 yards per play.

The Arizona Cardinals jumped out to a quick 17-3 lead on the road against the Buffalo Bills, but Buffalo went on a 31-11 run to close the game. Arizona’s only touchdown in the second half came on a kick return.

Perhaps the most impressive showing in the division Sunday came from the Los Angeles Rams in a 26-20 overtime loss to the Detroit Lions on the road. LA lost star wide receiver Puka Nacua early in the contest. They also had only one starter at his regular spot on the offensive line because of injuries. LA still cobbled together enough offense to take a fourth-quarter lead, but the Lions tied it late with a field goal before plowing down the field for the game-winning touchdown on the first possession of overtime.

The 49ers will take any win they can get against the New York Jets on Monday night. However, if they overcome their tumultuous offseason and put together a complete game against a Jets team considered by some to be a Super Bowl favorite, the 49ers can quickly confirm their status as the team to beat in the NFC West.

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Games that matter for 49ers during bye week

Games that matter for the #49ers during their bye week:

The 49ers aren’t in action in Week 9, but there are a handful of games that’ll matter for a club that’s now fighting for its playoff life after holding onto the No. 1 seed in the conference just three weeks ago.

San Francisco heads into Week 9 as the No. 6 seed in the conference and in need of some help to climb back toward the top. They can’t help themselves over the bye, but they can certainly get some help.

Here are the games that matter for the 49ers on Sunday: