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Week 16 comes to a close Monday evening with our San Francisco 49ers hosting the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. A win clinches a playoff berth, a loss puts the 49ers in the unenviable position of likely having to go into Arizona and get a win. So, 49ers, just win Monday and take care of business.
Here are the current playoff standings with MNF approaching:
No. 1 Seattle Seahawks 12-3 (NFC West leader)
No. 2 Carolina Panthers 11-4 (NFC South leader)
No. 3 Philadelphia Eagles 9-6 (NFC East leader)
No. 4 Chicago Bears 8-7 (NFC North leader)
No. 5 San Francisco 49ers 10-4 (Wild Card)
No. 6 New Orleans Saints 10-5 (Wild Card)
On the outside looking in
1. Arizona Cardinals (10-5)
2. Dallas Cowboys (8-7)
3. Green Bay Packers (7-7-1)
Tomorrow we'll take a look at the Week 17 schedule. For now, here is a full run down of all possible playoff options for the 49ers. First up, scenarios for each potential seed they can get:
No. 1 seed: 49ers beat Falcons and Cardinals, Seahawks lose to Rams, Panthers lose at Falcons
No. 2 seed: 49ers beat Falcons and Cardinals, Seahawks lose to Rams, Panthers beat Falcons
No. 5 seed: a) 49ers beat Falcons and Cardinals, Seahawks beat Rams; b) 49ers split with Falcons and Cardinals, Saints lose to Buccaneers
No. 6 seed: 49ers split with Falcons and Cardinals, Saints lose to Buccaneers
And who are their potential opponents? I put together this tweet for the two other games of note tomorrow:
Playoff scenarios: 1) Phi wins next wk, they're 3, Chi/GB winner 4; 2) Dal/Chi wins, Chi is 3, Dal is 4; 3) Dal/GB wins, Dal is 3, GB is 4
— Niners Nation (@NinersNation) December 23, 2013
The 3 plays the 6 and the 4 plays the 5, so the 49ers could face any one of those four depending on their seeding. We'll clarify this a little further in the coming week.
