Maiocco had a couple interesting comments on his Twitter page yesterday looking at the 49ers potential playoff chances:
Niners just need to hold serve w/ Cardinals and beat them Dec. 14. RT @_brandone_ What do these injuries mean to postseason hopes?
49ers-Cardinals game, possible NFC West decider, is 6 weeks from today.
Indeed, the 49ers and Cardinals' remaining respective schedules could lead to quite the close to the season. There are nine games left, but there is a bit of symmetry worth exploring. Before we get into it, I can definitely acknowledge that the Seahawks are still alive in the potential playoff race. They're a game back of San Francisco and two back of Arizona, which could obviously be made up. However, for the purposes of this post, we'll hold off on discussing the Seahawks. As the weeks progress, if things change we'll adjust accordingly.
I decided to utilize a table for this post, and due to the length of it I've posted it after the jump. Feel free to comment on my predictions, or make your own.
I've put together a table with each of the 49ers and Cardinals remaining opponents and some quick predictions from me. If the 49ers want to win the division, as Maiocco said, they simply need to hold serve with Arizona and then beat Arizona at home Monday night December 14.
I'm sure plenty of folks will disagree with my quick predictions here, but I honestly don't think they're completely out of the realm of possibility. Maybe it's a bit optimistic, but I actually think one could make an argument for all of the wins and losses listed below.
| SF Result | SF Opp | Week | Ari Opp | Ari Result |
| W | vs Tenn | Week 9 | @ Chi | L |
| W | vs Chi | Week 10 | vs Sea | W |
| L | @ GB | Week 11 | @ StL | W |
| W | vs Jax | Week 12 | @ Tenn | W |
| W | @ Sea | Week 13 | vs Minn | L |
| W | vs Ari | Week 14 | @ SF | L |
| L | @Phi | Week 15 | @ Det | W |
| W | vs Det | Week 16 | vs StL | W |
| W | @ StL | Week 17 | vs GB | W |
The end result is both teams finish 10-6 with the 49ers getting the tiebreaker. Maybe that's just a little too neat and tidy for folks, but I'll roll with it for now. In making the predictions I can honestly say it was just a once-through picking games and not thinking how I could figure out the right numbers. I went with what I feel was my gut instinct, which might be the most honest I could be at this point. Or subliminally I was adjusting on the fly.
Either way, I would certainly be ecstatic to see this end result. It all starts this Sunday with Tennessee and Chicago on the respective dockets. I'd imagine the team isn't "scoreboard-watching" at this point, but I certainly have no problem as a fan doing a bit of scoreboard watching.