The San Francisco 49ers got a much-needed Week 6 win over the Seattle Seahawks that appeared to put them back on track toward contending for a Super Bowl.
After dropping their NFC West rival 36-24 at Lumen Field in Seattle, the 49ers jumped from No. 14 to the No. 4 seed in the NFC playoff picture and form No. 3 to No. 1 in the NFC West. That leap wasn’t reflected in the USA TODAY power rankings where the 49ers still sit outside the top 10 at No. 12 overall, a one-spot hop from the previous week.
While power rankings aren’t the defining factor in team success, this paints a clear picture of what’s ahead for the 49ers.
While they sit at No. 12 for now, San Francisco has games against No. 1 Kansas City and No. 15 Dallas coming up before the bye. Immediately after the bye they have No. 6 Tampa Bay.
If the 49ers are going to assert themselves as contenders and a top-10 team again, this is the stretch where they can stake their claim.
A win over the Chiefs would give Kansas City its first loss. A win over Dallas might just put a fork in the Cowboys’ season. And a win over Tampa Bay would put some distance between the 49ers and one of the upstart NFC South teams looking to become a real threat in the postseason.
If they can secure wins in all three of those games, it would be hard to argue the 49ers are anything but on track to be the class of the NFC again. If they can get two wins, it puts them in a great position to be a threat down the stretch.
If they stumble and only win one or fewer, then it may be a season where mediocrity is the goal and a playoff berth will be in question all year.
For now the win over the Seahawks is nice, but it’s clear from the power rankings they still have a ton of work to do.
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