An NFC West rivalry will take centerstage on Saturday when the sixth-seeded San Francisco 49ers face the first-seeded Seattle Seahawks for the third time this season. This rubber match will not only be for bragging rights, but it'll also be for a spot in the 2026 NFC Championship Game.

While the Seahawks were sitting at home, they got to watch the 49ers upset the defending Super Bowl Champions. On a 4th and 11 backed up on their own 21 yard line with time running out, San Fran forced an incompletion by Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts to hold on for the 23-19 victory.

“I'm just proud of the guys, how hard they battled,” said 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan during the postgame press conference. “Having two turnovers and them having none and being able to still find a way to win that I thought was huge… We thought it would be a grimy game, is how we say it. It was. Our defense allowed it to be that way.”

Sadly, the Niners were dealt a huge blow in the Wild Card Round when Pro Bowl tight end George Kittle suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in the second quarter of the game. As demoralizing as that loss might have been, San Francisco still found a way to overcome it and beat the Eagles.

“This team has carried the character of George Kittle throughout the entire year. And since I got traded here, he's the heart and soul of this team, so it's a tough loss, man,” running back Christian McCaffrey told reporters after the game. “It’s a weird deal when your brother goes down, but plays are called, and you’ve got to go out there and execute. [We] still got a game to win. And the way I see it, George wouldn't want you to harp over anything that goes on with him. He would want you to get back in there and continue to play.”

After that win, the Niners be on a short week with their game against the Seahawks scheduled for later today. This isn’t anything new, though, because this is the second time since the start of December that San Francisco will be facing Seattle on a short week.

“I mean, that week, we didn't do one thing full-speed because it was our third game in 13 days. So, it wasn't just that short week. It was the two weeks before of short weeks, also,” explained Kyle Shanahan on Tuesday. “Doing it this week, I mean, that's what we’ve got to do today. Change the times up where we usually bring them in for about seven hours today. They're only in for about three and a half. We'll do all walkthrough, nothing full-speed. We won't go against each other at all, and then we'll see how it goes. Let's see how guys feel and decide what we want to do tomorrow.”

The last time the Seahawks and 49ers got together, the defense played a stellar game, holding Seattle to just 13 points. However, the offense failed to meet expectations after only putting up three points. Despite San Francisco’s offensive struggles, they’re not changing their preparation for this week.

“It doesn't change our process at all. We go through the same process. We watch the same film we watched two weeks ago,” offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said on January 14th. “Sometimes you see new things. Sometimes you see things differently… But there's just not much tape to watch, so you're limited. You've kind of watched it all, and it's just going to come down to executing, and it's going to come down to our guys playing their best.”

Unlike San Fran, Seattle got to spend last weekend as spectators after earning the number-one seed in the NFC. Some coaches and players even got together to watch a few of the Wild Card games, which was an unusual experience for head coach Mike Macdonald.

“I told the team today, it's weird watching like full games all the way through,” he explained on Monday. “You find yourself like rooting for teams, and you're like, ‘Why am I rooting for this team?’ Like, this is the dumbest thing ever. And then, five seconds later, you're rooting for the other team. I'm glad it's over. I'm glad we're back to regularly-scheduled programming here.”

While watching their divisional rival defeat the reigning Super Bowl Champions, Mike Macdonald acknowledged how gutsy the 49ers looked last weekend.

“Well, I think - just watching it live - it was just an incredibly resilient win,” he said. “I mean, [the] team has a lot of character. They're really tough, but it's really nothing new with these guys. It’s what you know, but it's a heck of a win. It's a tough place to go and play and get a win.”

Though the Seahawks had the benefit of not playing last weekend, they still held some practices to keep the team fresh. Mike Macdonald told reporters that it's important they stay on top of things while still getting some much-needed rest.

“It's a kind of the million-dollar question, right? How much [do] you do? How much do you rest? I thought we felt like we tried to keep it on cadence as much as possible in terms of what their like body rhythm would be and then just trust the guys that they were still going to take care of their bodies and get the proper amount of rest over those three days,” he said. “We've had some longer weeks throughout the year where we've been pretty work-intensive, and I felt like it was just kind of mentally draining for us. I think we've proved to ourselves - in a week's time - we can put together a great plan and get ready to play a game, so we wanted to keep that cadence as close as possible.”

Even with San Francisco banged up and missing their Pro Bowl tight end, Seattle is not taking this challenge lightly. The Seahawks know that the 49ers will make this a competitive matchup, but they believe they can win this game as long as each player takes care of his assignment.

“Man, I just expect it to be a hard-fought game,” said Seattle linebacker and team captain Ernest Jones IV. “I'm sure they have a couple things schemed up for us, but it's always been about our execution and how we play. So, I think the same thing applies this time around.”

Prediction for San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks (-7)

When these teams have gotten together, points have been hard to come by. In Week One, these squads combined for 30 points. Two weeks ago, we only saw 16 total points scored between these two teams. We should see a little more scoring this time around, but not much. With George Kittle unavailable, the 49ers will likely want to get Christian McCaffrey going in the run game and the pass game. That will probably be difficult, considering he only had 56 scrimmage yards the last time they played, and that was a game in San Francisco that George Kittle played in! On the road and with Kittle out, Seattle should be able to hold CMC to fewer than 100 scrimmage yards. Offensively, the Seahawks will want to lean heavily on the ground game. They had 180 rushing yards against the Niners two weeks ago. Plus, San Francisco gave up 140 rushing yards to the Eagles last weekend. Seattle will split carries between running backs Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet, who averaged 5.2 yards per rushing attempt in Week 18. Once they get the rushing attack going, the Seahawks can use play action to set up a few deep shots to wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who has 15 catches for 208 yards against the 49ers this season. San Fran will score more points this time than they did in Week 18, but will still fall short of the victory.

Prediction: Seahawks 16 - 10 49ers

How to watch San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks (-7)

49ers @ Seahawks starts at 8:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday at Lumen Field. You can watch it on Fox, or stream it via the Fox Sports app or NFL+.

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