Niners Nation
I don’t think I need to repeat the stakes of Saturday night’s matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. It’s been well covered.
The 49ers will host their most important game of the 2025 season, with a chance to give themselves the easiest possible path in the playoffs, but the always tough Seahawks stand in their way in a rematch four months in the making.
With the future of the NFC playoffs on the line, these are the numbers to know for Saturday’s massive game to decide the NFC West crown and the No.1 seed in the NFC:
14.9
The Seahawks offense turns the ball over on 14.9 percent of its drives, the second-highest rate in the league.
Seattle turns the ball over as frequently as any team in the league — only the Vikings have more – but it’s almost a catch-22. While theyve turned the ball over plenty, it hasn’t affected them in the win-loss column as you’d expect. The Seahawks have turned the ball over at least twice in nine of their 16 games, but their record in those games is 6-3, with each of their last three such games resulting in a win.
If you extend it to games where Seattle has turned the ball over at least once, their record is 10-3. And of course, it would only make sense to mention that they’re 3-0 in the three games where they don’t commit a single turnover.
Where this becomes relevant for the 49ers is that one of the three losses Seattle had, committing two or more turnovers, came way back in September when San Francisco went into Seattle and started their season with a 17-13 win. Both turnovers were timely, coming in the second half, with Nick Bosa putting the game away with a strip-sack of Sam Darnold with 37 seconds remaining, giving the 49ers the ball and the win.
Forcing turnovers hasn’t been the 49ers’ defense’s strong suit this season; it’s 16 turnovers forced, ranking 22nd in the league, but nine of those turnovers have come over the last six games.
While the 49ers were held without a turnover last week against a Bears team that has the fewest turnovers in the league, San Francisco may take advantage of the turnover-prone Seahawks and earn a couple of extra possessions against one of the most formidable defenses in the league.
29.4
Seattle’s defense allows a score on 29.4 percent of drives, the second-best rate in the league.
The 49ers offense has been on a heater in recent weeks, scoring more than 35 points in each of their last three games. Those three games, however, have come against the No. 28 (Titans), No. 19 (Colts), and No. 22 (Bears) ranked scoring defenses in the league.
Only the vaunted Texans defense has allowed fewer points this season than the Seahawks, so it’s probably not a coincidence that two of the 49ers’ three lowest point outputs this season have come against Houston and Seattle. Seattle’s defense,...
