Seahawks up, 49ers down in seeding
Here’s how the NFL playoff picture looks with Week 13 action complete:
NFC
y-1. Saints (10-2): NFC South champions. They move into the pole position for home-field advantage after Seattle’s win Monday night bumped the 49ers into the wild-card bracket. New Orleans’ Week 3 win at Seattle projects as a key tiebreaker.
2. Seahawks (10-2): NFC West leader. Seized control of the division with their win over the Vikings, but the schedule won’t provide much room to breathe. The Seahawks will have to fend off the Rams in prime time Sunday, and the regular season finale at home against the 49ers looms large.
3. Packers (9-3): NFC North leader. Aaron Rodgers’ big day keeps them viable for a bye, especially with a manageable December slate.
4. Cowboys (6-6): NFC East leader. As bad as they’ve looked recently, the ’Boys continue to be buoyed by the imploding Eagles, whose loss at Miami entrenches Dallas in first place at least into Week 15.
5. 49ers (10-2): Wild card No. 1. After an 8-0 start, the Niners now are in jeopardy of having to spend January on the road. Sunday’s showdown at New Orleans has massive ramifications for the entire conference.
6. Vikings (8-4): Wild card No. 2. Catching the Packers for the NFC North crown will be quite difficult after the Vikes stumbled Monday. Perhaps more important, Minnesota’s lead over the Rams for the final wild-card spot is down to one game.
AFC
1. Ravens (10-2): AFC North leader. Sunday couldn’t have gone much better. They beat the 49ers in dramatic fashion in what might prove a Super Bowl LIV preview, QB Lamar Jackson continuing to rewrite the record book in the process. Then they watched New England lose, springboarding Baltimore into the catbird seat for home-field advantage.
2. Patriots (10-2): AFC East leader. The concern is officially real. Getting manhandled by Houston not only costs New England the No. 1 seed, it also means the Patriots suddenly have to worry about fending off the closing Bills if they’re to win the division for the 11th consecutive year.
3. Texans (8-4): AFC South leader. Second-ever win against the Patriots might legitimize them as a bona fide playoff threat. But the division hardly a guarantee yet with both matchups against the Titans (7-5) still down the road.
4. Chiefs (8-4): AFC West leader. They effectively locked up the division by completing a sweep of the Raiders. But a victory at New England on Sunday could rekindle hopes of a playoff bye.
5. Bills (9-3): Wild card No. 1. Dismantling Dallas allows them to continue padding their wild-card lead ahead of a Week 14 date with the Ravens ... and maybe begin entertaining visions of an AFC East crown.
6. Steelers (7-5): Wild card No. 2. They settled their score with the Browns (5-7) on a day when Indianapolis and Oakland both fell to .500. But the surging Titans have reached 7-5 themselves and are just waiting for the Steelers to step on a banana peel. x–clinched berth y–clinched division z–clinched first-round bye zz–clinched home-field advantage