Sunday from an on-field perspective went poorly for the 49ers. In the short-term their mistakes in all facets, injuries and another loss to division rival Seattle made it a forgettable day in the 2021 season. Zooming out from Week 13 to take a look at the bigger picture reveals the week went alright for the 49ers, who are still in possession of a playoff spot with five games to go.
Losses by the Saints and Vikings were the two big ones that helped the 6-6 49ers stay in the last wild card despite a loss and a win by Washington.
This is what the NFC playoff picture looks like with 13 weeks in the books:
1. Cardinals (10-2)
2. Packers (9-3)
3. Buccaneers (9-3)
4. Cowboys (8-4)
5. Rams (8-4)
6. Washington (6-6)
7. 49ers (6-6)
8. Eagles (6-7)
9. Vikings (5-7)
10. Panthers (5-7)
11. Falcons (5-7)
12. Saints (5-7)
While the 49ers aren’t in an ideal spot with one loss potentially plummeting them out of the top-seven, it appears that 9-8 will get one of the last two wild card positions in the NFC.
It’s not a lock that San Francisco gets there, especially given how they looked in Seattle. However, the Falcons and Texans are both very winnable home games. They also have road matchups with the Bengals, Titans and Rams.
There’s still plenty of work for the 49ers to do, but they survived a bad loss Sunday with their playoff spot intact. How they bounce back will determine whether they play into mid-January.
