{"id":653188,"date":"2026-01-04T12:12:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/653188\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T12:12:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:12:23","slug":"who-will-the-49ers-face-in-their-wild-card-playoff-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/653188\/","title":{"rendered":"Who will the 49ers face in their Wild Card playoff game?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco 49ers controlled their own fate heading into their Week 18 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks. A win would have secured the NFC West title and home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. Instead, a 13-3 loss<\/a> flipped the postseason picture.<\/p>\n

Seattle now claims the NFC’s No. 1 seed, while the 49ers are headed on the road for the Wild Card round as either the No. 5 or No. 6 seed\u2014two paths with very different implications.<\/p>\n

Tight end George Kittle<\/a> made it clear Saturday night that he’ll be rooting for the Arizona Cardinals in their Week 18 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams. A Cardinals win would make the 49ers the No. 5 seed, while a Rams victory would drop San Francisco to third place in the NFC West and lock them into the No. 6 seed.<\/p>\n

On paper, the fifth seed offers a more favorable route to the Divisional Round. In that scenario, the 49ers would travel to face the NFC South champion\u2014either the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Carolina Panthers. San Francisco has already seen both teams this season, falling to Tampa Bay in Week 6<\/a> but defeating Carolina in Week 12<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Landing the sixth seed would set up a tougher road matchup against either the Chicago Bears or the Philadelphia Eagles. The 49ers edged the Bears 42-38 in a Week 17 thriller<\/a> and have not faced the Eagles this season. Either matchup would present a steeper climb to advance.<\/p>\n

The final seeding hinges on several Sunday afternoon games. The Rams face the Cardinals, while the Bears host the Detroit Lions, and the Eagles take on the Washington Commanders.<\/p>\n

A Rams and Bears win would send the 49ers to Philadelphia. If the Rams and Eagles win\u2014and the Bears lose\u2014San Francisco would head to Chicago.<\/p>\n

If the Rams lose and the Atlanta Falcons defeat the New Orleans Saints, the 49ers would travel to Carolina. A Rams loss combined with a Falcons loss or tie would send San Francisco to Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

With so many variables in play, all eyes will be on Sunday as the NFC playoff bracket comes into focus.<\/p>\n

As Kittle summed it up after Saturday’s loss, “I’m looking forward to whoever we play. Let’s go, Budda and Trey McBride<\/a>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers controlled their own fate heading into their Week 18 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6066,6,1161,252,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-653188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-george-kittle","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115836770707794877","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653188","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=653188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}