Niners Nation
And so it’s come to this. The final week of the NFL regular season will decide who wins the NFC West. It was a wild ride, but the San Francisco 49ers have a chance to take that crown back and not go on any more road games in 2025.
The 49ers have issues—or an issue: their defense. It’s not like it was in prior years. They do have one Brock Purdy, and if he can play like he has the last two weeks, they won’t need the elite defenses they’ve had. They still need the defense to step up in the playoffs, but that offense has been clicking enough that they might be able to get by with what they have.
The Seahawks are a great team to gauge how good the 49ers offense is in 2025. If the offensive production can continue in this game against one of the league’s better defenses, we can begin to feel better about the playoffs.
Regardless of what happens, the 49ers have been quietly rebuilding their roster this year. Rebuilding, and they might get the No. 1 seed? They have a more manageable schedule, but they don’t have an easier division since three of the four NFC West teams are going to the postseason.
My point is, the 49ers are playing on house money. They have the pieces on offense and soon the cap space to fill the holes on defense. We don’t have to wait until Sunday either. The NFL doesn’t want a game where the No. 1 seed in the NFC and the NFC West are decided, and wants… well, whatever they want to be the Sunday night game. So Saturday night it is.
Not like it would have changed what the 49ers have to do in Week 18, but it certainly would have been nice to see the Seahawks lose to the Panthers because that’s always fun. For a hot minute, the Panthers looked like pulling such a victory off was a possibility. The first half ended in a tie at 3-3. Those three points on the Panthers’ end were courtesy of a car crash of a fumble, where Darnold managed to drop the ball twice:
The Panthers got their turnover, and it wouldn’t be the last. In the third quarter, Sam Darnold threw a floater into the Panthers’ end zone that got intercepted. Great, right? Second turnover so that the Panthers can kick another field goal at least?
Nah. The Seahawks had enough of this turnover thing and got one of their own on the very next play, thanks to Chuba Hubbard doing this:
And then Seattle went to the run game to make it 10-3. Not to be outdone, the Seahawks decided another turnover was adequate and picked off Bryce Young the very next series. A few plays later, another touchdown, and it’s 17-3.
You can kinda figure out where this goes from there. The Panthers had their chances, and they squandered them away....
