The 9ers are in a more stressing position. Although there division will probably be won with a mediocre record a wold card spot is not going to get it at 8-9 or possibly 9-8. They will be playing this game like a win or go home scenario which means they may push players to play.
It’s a pretty big game for them. Although it’s also a pretty big game for us. It’s now highly likely our path to the playoffs comes through 3 Wildcard spots. As of today the Vikings hold the 5th and we hold at 6th. Our primary Competition is Vikings, Washington, 49ers, Seattle, Arizona, LA for those 3 spots.
We hold tiebreakers over LA and Arizona and 1 of the 4 NFC West teams will obviously win their Division, so they’ll drop off of the list (currently Arizona).
That puts Minnesota, Washington and likely SF or Seattle fighting the Packers over 3 spots. LA is odd man out because we win a tiebreaker.
A victory over SF49ers is substantial. 8-3 with Tiebreakers over Arizona, SF, LA would be huge. We’d also have a 4-3 Conference record and only Washington would be better (as far as non Division winners)
So yes, imo it’s detrimental to SF that they Win. Falling to 5-6 with potentially 5 teams fighting over what will amount to 1 or 2 spots. What shaping up is that 9-8 likely won’t cut it in 2024. 10-7 will likely be the bottom in the NFC and 11 Wins to feel good about a Wildcard.
For the Packers, 8-3 would have us staring at the 11-6 area and a lock. We’d need to Win 3 of our last 6 imo our odds would be high going into the stretch. We’d really be battling between the 6th and 5th seeding and an easier matchup on Wildcard (with outside parameters of a Division Leader or barely hanging our scraggly hat on a 7th Seed with a tie breaker getting us there).
