The San Francisco 49ers playoff hopes are hanging on for dear life after falling to the Green Bay Packers in Week 12 and bringing their conference record to 3-5.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke about the team's mindset heading into Week 13. Shanahan is aware of the 49ers' situation and sees the current outlook of the NFC West:
"It's nice when you're one game out of first in your own division. So that does say a lot, especially being able to play two of those teams left of our six games."
San Francisco still has matchups against the Los Angeles Rams and the Arizona Cardinals to end the season.
The 49ers will have their hands full on the road against the 9-2 Buffalo Bills, but every NFC West team could struggle this week. The Arizona Cardinals travel to Minnesota to take on the 9-2 Vikings. The Niners know first-hand how difficult it is to play in Minnesota.
The Seattle Seahawks have the "easiest" path to a victory. They take on the 3-8 New York Jets. Aaron Rodgers looks like a shell of himself, but the but it's only the Seahawks fourth road game of the season. The last time they went to the East Coast, Seattle needed overtime to outlast Jacoby Brissett.
New York is also coming off a bye, as are the New Orleans Saints. They're hosting Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams. As talented as the Rams are, they can't block. Their ceiling is capped because of that.
The NFC West might be the lone shot the 49ers have at a playoff berth unless the Washington Commanders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers free fall continues. The Bucs have dropped four of their last five. The only win came last week against Tommy Devito.
Unfortunately, they have games coming up against the Carolina Panthers, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Dallas Cowboys, Panthers again, and New Orleans Saints. So, wins shouldn't be difficult to come by.
Shanahan knows that 10 wins aren't guaranteed to get the 49ers into the playoffs:
"But you also know, you look at the whole NFC picture and if you don't win the division, it's 10-7 not guaranteed to get in as a Wild Card by any means this year. So I think everyone understands completely outside and inside what the situation is. That's why that Seattle game was so tough of a loss, and that's why last night was even worse. We know what we got ahead of us. We know exactly what that playoff situation is. That is what it is."
Looking in the rearview mirror gets you nowhere. The 49ers have to take care of business and the games remaining on their schedule. Shanahan is confident his players come in with a fighting mentality Wednesday:
"But really all that matters is this week. When you do need to go on a run and put a lot of wins to even think of that, then you better make sure you're only thinking of one thing and that's Buffalo. And so, we've had to take care of a lot of stuff today. I'm hoping that guys will take care of their bodies stuff here over the day and a half they're away from us. We'll come back Wednesday fully understanding the situation we're in and coming back ready to fight because that's all we can do right now is just fight our butts off. And I'll be very surprised that not every guy in this building when I see them Wednesday isn't ready for that exact mindset that we're going to need to pull off what we feel we can."