‘For everything’: NFL sets time, day of Seahawks-49ers week 18 showdown
The NFL regular season will end for Seattle with the Seahawks playing their archrival with everything that could be at stake on the line.
The league announced Sunday night Seattle (13-3) will play their week-18 game at San Francisco (12-4) next Saturday night, Jan. 3, at 5 p.m. on ABC and ESPN as the final game before the playoffs.
Seahawks-49ers in Santa Clara, California, will be for the NFC West title — and for the number-one seed in the conference’s playoffs. That means the winner will get a first-round bye and two games at home to get to the Super Bowl.
The loser will be a wild card, play the following weekend, and need at least two and most likely three road playoff wins to reach the Super Bowl.
Ernest Jones has a thought on that.
Bring it on.
“Yeah, let’s let it be for everything,” the Seahawks’ middle linebacker said in the bumpin’ visitors’ locker room following his team’s 27-10 win at Carolina on Sunday.
Jones thought back to January 2025, when the Seahawks won their 10th game in the regular-season finale— but had nothing to play for because their rival Los Angeles Rams had already clinched the NFC West before week 18, on a tiebreaker.
“Last year we didn’t get a chance to have the opportunity to play the Rams (with) the opportunity (to win the division),” Jones said.
“So let’s do it. Whatever it takes. Whatever it costs.”
The league made its decision on Seahawks-49ers next weekend following San Francisco’s wild, 42-38 victory over the Chicago Bears (11-5) Sunday night.
Earlier Sunday, the Seahawks improved to 14-2 on the road in two seasons with Mike Macdonald as their coach. The 38-year-old first-time head man has the second-most road wins in the first two seasons in the position in NFL history. George Seifert won all 16 in his first two seasons succeeding Bill Walsh running the 49ers, in 1989-90.
Yet the only three times the Seahawks have reached the Super Bowl in their 50-year history have been the only three times they’ve had the number-one seed and home-field throughout the conference playoffs. That was in the 2005, ‘13 and ‘14 seasons.
A Seahawks loss at San Francisco next week would mean Seattle becomes a wild card in the NFC. That would mean three road playoff wins to get to the Super Bowl, beginning the second weekend of January at the NFC South champion, the winner of next weekend’s Carolina at Tampa Bay game.
Macdonald was asked after the win at the Panthers Sunday about what getting the top seed would mean to his Seahawks.
“I’m going to give you the boring answer: I think it’s the same story. As we’re hitting these benchmarks, it’s going to be the same message to the team because that’s what’s got us to this point,” Macdonald said. “We’re going to do everything in our power to go win this one and we’ll go play the next one.
“That’s the message. It takes 100% of everybody all the time every week. Nothing changes this week. One of our goals is to win the division. It’s going to come down to if we win the game we win the division, so we’ll hit the next goal.
The 49ers are rolling — on offense.
Six days after they scored 48 points, their most in six years, against an Indianapolis team Seattle managed just six field goals against the week before, the Niners rolled up 330 yards in the first half Sunday night against NFC North-champion Chicago. That was San Francisco’s most yards in a first half since 1998.
But the Bears ripped through the 49ers injury-depleted defense. Chicago gained 440 yards and 38 points. The Bears came a final-play incomplete pass from the 4-yard line from winning that game.
This story was originally published December 28, 2025 at 8:41 PM.
