It\u2019s finally gameday, as the San Francisco 49ers are taking on the Seattle Seahawks in the final week of the regular season, with the winner clinching both the No. 1 seed in the NFC and the division title.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a ton at stake in this heavyweight primetime matchup, with both teams looking far different from when the 49ers beat the Seahawks 17-13 back in Week 1. Despite the 49ers being at home, the Seahawks are 2.5-point favorites.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s going to be a tough game for the 49ers. Seattle\u2019s defense is playing at an extremely high level, while San Francisco\u2019s defense has allowed 89 points in its last three games. But, there certainly is a path to victory, so let\u2019s break down the keys for a 49ers win over Seattle in Week 18.<\/p>\n
49ers offensive line versus the Seahawks defensive line<\/p>\n
This is the matchup of the game to me. The 49ers\u2019 offensive line has been underrated this season and has really helped the run game get going over the last few weeks of the season.<\/p>\n
But they face an elite Seattle front that has guys all across the line. Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy have been one of the best defensive tackle duos in the NFL. DeMarcus Lawrence and Uchenna Nwosu have been solid as well on the edges.<\/p>\n
The 49ers need to get some traction up front to have at least somewhat of a sustainable run game with Christian McCaffrey. That task gets even more challenging if Trent Williams can\u2019t go, which seems to be the case.<\/p>\n
If the 49ers\u2019 offensive line can put up somewhat of a fight, the 49ers\u2019 offense has a shot to continue their high level of play. But, if there are struggles both blocking the run and in pass protection, there may be too much on Brock Purdy\u2019s plate to create something out of nothing.<\/p>\n
Brock Purdy has been stellar over the last few games. He was a bit shaky initially in his return from injury with a few bad plays against both the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers, but has been a top quarterback since, leading the 49ers to six straight wins.<\/p>\n
In his last three games, Purdy has 13 touchdowns, throwing at least 295 yards in each game, while the offense has combined for 127 points.<\/p>\n
Now, he faces arguably his toughest challenge of the year. Not only does Seattle have a great front, but their secondary has been great all year long with a good cornerback duo of Devon Witherspoon and Tariq Woolen.<\/p>\n
This same defense forced Purdy into two interceptions in the season opener, and the 49ers can\u2019t afford those with how their defense is currently looking.<\/p>\n
Purdy has a tall task ahead of him, especially if Trent Williams doesn\u2019t play. He\u2019ll need to make sound decisions, deal with a strong pass rush, and lead San Francisco\u2019s explosive offense against one of the best play-callers in the NFL with Mike MacDonald.<\/p>\n
While the offensive line vs. defensive line matchup is the biggest of the game, Purdy is the difference-maker for San Francisco and will likely be a big reason for a win or loss.<\/p>\n
Both of these teams have the ability to go on scoring sprees. But one advantage San Francisco may have is in the red zone.<\/p>\n
The 49ers offense has been red hot in the red zone after a slow start to the season, now ranking second in the NFL with a 66.2 percent touchdown rate on drives in the red zone.<\/p>\n
Since Brock Purdy returned from his toe injury, the 49ers have been the No. 1 scoring offense in the NFL, averaging 35.8 points per game, and have scored 22 touchdowns on 30 red zone attempts in those six games.<\/p>\n
Seattle has a pretty good red zone defense, ranking seventh in the NFL by allowing opponents to score touchdowns on only 51 percent of red zone drives.<\/p>\n
On the flip side, the 49ers defense and Seahawks offense are both middle-of-the-pack in the red zone. How both teams score will be imperative in what should be a close game. Back in Week 1, the 49ers had five red zone drives and scored two touchdowns, while Seattle converted only one of three attempts. San Francisco won that 17-13.<\/p>\n
San Francisco has been really good with scoring touchdowns in the red zone lately. That needs to continue on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s finally gameday, as the San Francisco 49ers are taking on the Seattle Seahawks in the final week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,6,1137,11446,238,237,261,2635],"class_list":{"0":"post-651020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","11":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-schedule","12":"tag-seahawks","13":"tag-seattle","14":"tag-seattle-seahawks","15":"tag-seattleseahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115831961412054015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}