49ers can pull off something the Seahawks have never done

The San Francisco 49ers have a chance to defeat the Seattle Seahawks three times in the same season, something that Seattle has never done to them.

Thanks to the Detroit Lions’ upset victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night, the Seattle Seahawks found a way to get into this year’s NFL playoffs, just months after the mere suggestion of such an outcome would have seemed implausible.

In year one of the post-Russell Wilson era, Geno Smith and the Seahawks are set to travel to Levi’s Stadium to take on the San Francisco 49ers on Wild Card weekend. The NFC West showdown is set to get the postseason underway on Saturday afternoon.

Over the last decade, the Seahawks have had the 49ers’ number, even reeling off 10 consecutive victories over their hated division rival at one point from 2014 to 2018 (including four straight season sweeps from 2014 to 2017).

But this year, things were different, and it was the 49ers who swept the Seahawks for the first time since 2011.

The 49ers beat the Seahawks at home by a score of 27-7 back in Week 2, and they beat them again on the road by a score of 21-13 in Week 15 to clinch the NFC West for the first time since 2019.

As a result, the 49ers have a chance to do what the Seahawks have never done to them: beat them three times in the same season.

Even during all those years when San Francisco simply couldn’t beat Seattle, this scenario never unfolded, though in all fairness to the Seahawks, give them credit for actually getting to the playoffs (even though they needed the recently added No. 7 seed to do it) after getting swept.

San Francisco never really came all that close to the postseason during their nine-game regular season losing streak to Seattle, winning just 21 total games during the four seasons in which Seattle swept them.

The 49ers and Seahawks have only ever met once in the postseason, and fans of both teams remember it well. The Seahawks punched their ticket to Super Bowl XLVIII, which they went on to win, by defeating the 49ers by a score of 23-17 in the NFC Championship in January 2014.

The Seahawks had beaten the 49ers at home in the regular season, and by a commanding 29-3 score, but the 49ers eked out a win in the final Candlestick Park matchup between the two teams later in the season, winning 19-17.

Beating a team three times in the same season is something that has happened 14 times since the 1970 merger, most recently in the 2017 season when the New Orleans Saints collected a trio of wins over the Carolina Panthers, including one in the Wild Card round.

Unfortunately for the 49ers, their history in this scenario isn’t exactly favorable, and you don’t have to go back far to find out why.

Last year, the 49ers swept the Los Angeles Rams in the regular season but fell to them by a score of 20-17 in the NFC Championship, sending the Rams to a Super Bowl they would ultimately win.

As for the Seahawks, their history in this scenario isn’t favorable either, as they were beaten three times by the Rams in the 2004 season, including once in the Wild Card round.