SEATTLE – Just like two weeks ago, the Seahawks and 49ers will be playing in prime time on a Saturday night.
The NFL announced Monday night that the Seahawks and 49ers NFC divisional playoff game will kick off at 5:15 p.m. on Saturday night and be broadcast by FOX.
It’s almost a repeat of the Week 18 matchup between the teams, except a different location with the playoff game set to be played at Lumen Field and a different channel. The Seahawks’ 13-3 win over the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Week 18 was also an evening game but was broadcast by ESPN.
Buffalo will be at Denver in Saturday’s early game that kicks off at 1:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on CBS. On Sunday New England hosts Houston at noon on ESPN and Chicago the Rams at 3:30 p.m. on NBC.
Saturday’s game will be the first home playoff game with fans in the stands for the Seahawks since Jan. 7, 2017 , when Seattle beat Detroit in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Five of their six playoff games since that victory have been played on the road, with the one home game played during the 2020 season when fans were not allowed inside Lumen Field due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since moving into Lumen Field in 2002, the Seahawks have played three true night games – kickoff later than 5 p.m. – in the postseason, including that 2017 win over Detroit. The Seahawks are 3-0 in those games.
They meet again
The Seahawks entered the weekend knowing there were four teams they might face in the divisional round.
They had to wait until the last possible moment – when a final Eagles drive came up short against the 49ers on Sunday afternoon – to find out they’d be playing San Francisco.
As problems go, of course, it’s about the best one to have.
But the wait did provide some unique moments for the Seahawks, who as the No. 1 seed in the NFC had the weekend off.
For a while Saturday night, when Green Bay jumped out to a 21-3 halftime lead against the Chicago Bears, it appeared the Seahawks were fated to play the seventh-seed Packers, the lowest seed in the conference.
“We did a lot of work on the Packers and that didn’t get us anywhere,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said Monday.
They won’t have to do much on the 49ers.
It also presents the oddity for the Seahawks of playing the same time in consecutive games, something rarely done and something the they have done only once, in the regular season in 1991 when they played the Chargers back-to-back but with a bye in between. The 49ers obviously played a game in between.
“I think it’s what you make it,” Macdonald said. “In classic Seahawk fashion maybe we probably overthink some things. Try not to, you know.”
Macdonald actually did it with the Ravens in 2022 when Baltimore played Cincinnati to end the regular season and again to open the playoffs.
As he noted, the regular -season game had no real meaning for either team, unlike the scenario this time.
The Bengals won games when Baltimore was without injured QB Lamar Jackson. So that experience won’t do Macdonald much good.
“It was a little different (than what the Seahawks are facing now),” Macdonald said.
The Seahawks can, at least, see if there’s some things to learn from the 49ers’ win over the Eagles and especially the second half when San Francisco had touchdown drives of 67 and 66 yards to pull out the win without star tight end George Kittle, who suffered an Achilles injury in the second quarter.
Macdonald said that Saturday’s game will inevitably be different from the last one.
“There are things in the game plan that we didn’t get to,” he said. “I’m sure there are things in their game plan they didn’t get to. To use the whole game-declaring-itself type thing, you don’t know how these games are going to go, how this game is going to play out. (There’s) about a 99.999 percent chance it’s going to play out way different than the last one, and you got to do a great job recognizing it and making the adjustments and doing all that type of stuff.”
Macdonald said the team had no organized watch parties but some coaches did watch some of the games together.
“I told the team today, it’s weird watching full games all the way through,” he said. “You find yourself rooting for teams and you’re like, ‘Why am I rooting for this team? It’s the dumbest thing ever.’ And then five seconds later you’re rooting for the other team. So I’m glad it’s over. I’m glad we’re back to regular scheduled programming here.”
TE Arroyo could return
The Seahawks don’t have a lot of personnel uncertainty heading into the week, but there are two situations worth watching:
First is whether the team will activate rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo (knee) off injured reserve. He practiced both days last week and Macdonald said “Elijah is looking good. He’s a possibility about coming back for this game.”
The Seahawks would have to make a move to add him to the 53-man roster by Friday.
The other is the health of left tackle Charles Cross (hamstring) and safety Coby Bryant (knee), who have each been sidelined in recent games. Cross practiced and talked to media last week and indicated he’s good to go.
Bryant was not seen on the field during the times practice was open to the media. Macdonald indicated Bryant will have a chance to make it back this week.