The San Francisco 49ers have three more games remaining. Two of them could be on national TV.
After the Los Angeles Rams lost to the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night, it opened the door for the 49ers. Both the 49ers and Seahawks now control their destiny for the No. 1 seed and the NFC West crown.
Provided they can win up until then, of course.
The 49ers and Seahawks meet in Week 18, the final week of the NFL regular season. The actual game broadcast has not been finalized (listed as TBD). That’s because
the NFL wants to make sure whoever gets primetime has something to play for in the final week of the regular season.
Looking at the Week 18 schedule, four other games outside the 49ers/Seahawks matchup would make sense for primetime: Detroit Lions vs. Chicago Bears, Baltimore Ravens vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Carolina Panthers, and Indianapolis Colts vs. Houston Texans.
The rest of the games feature teams that either clinched or are facing a team out of contention, except for the Denver Broncos, who face the Los Angeles Chargers (Denver has clinched a playoff berth; the Chargers have not). Denver very well could have things locked up for the No. 1 seed in the AFC and may pull their starters against the Chargers, though a lot could happen between now and then.
The NFL probably won’t want to show a game where one team already has a playoff spot, facing another team that ‘might’ get into the playoffs with a win, so that removes a lot of those games.
Looking at what we have left: Colts/Texans could be a fun game—if the Jacksonville Jaguars weren’t leading the division. Provided the Jaguars don’t take a nosedive, this game would be for a wild-card spot. The Jaguars do have the Broncos and Colts back-to-back, but it’s doubtful they’d lose both of those. Now that Philip Rivers is back under center in Indianapolis, it depends on how he plays down the stretch. Depending on that, this whole AFC South thing could be wrapped up before Week 18.
Then there’s the Buccaneers/Panthers. That one could be interesting…if it weren’t two teams that right now have a 7-7 record. The two play each other this weekend, then they meet in Week 18. They could be 8-8 by the time their second game plays. Do you want to see an 8-8 team close out the season? OK. I mean, it worked for Green Bay and Detroit one season.
Then there’s the Ravens/Steelers. A solid pick for the East Coast. Except the Ravens have the Green Bay Packers and the New England Patriots first—both on national TV. While no team can play more than five prime-time games in a season, there’s no hard rule on how many in a row they can play. That said, three primetime games feels a bit oversaturated, even by NFL standards.
That leaves us with the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears. Should the 49ers lose to the Bears in Week 17 while the Seahawks beat the Carolina Panthers, this probably will be the game that gets the prime-time nod. If the 49ers and Seahawks both win those games (and assuming the 49ers notch a win this week on Monday Night Football against the Colts), there really isn’t anything on the schedule that seems more rating-needy than 49ers-Seahawks.
The last time these two teams closed out the season with all of this on the line was in 2019. The No. 1 seed, the NFC West, all of it was on the line. There was one tiny little difference: the game was in Seattle. The 49ers got a massive monkey off their back, snapping a losing streak in Seattle with the win. This was also the game where the 49ers, namely Dre Greenlaw, channeled their inner Dan Bunz for a goal-line stand:
Provided the 49ers can win their next two games, I don’t see how this is not the frontrunner for a primetime slot. That’s no easy task. The Colts are no gimmie, and the Bears are first in the NFC North (while the Packers are a game back—I sure didn’t see that one coming).
Unlike normal flexing, the NFL makes its Week 18 schedule decisions after Week 17 concludes. So they don’t have to give advanced notice of a schedule change and then hope the teams they plugged in are still relevant when the game arrives.
But it’s definitely looking like we might get a repeat of 2019. I only hope that despite the venue change, the same result happens.
