Seattle's imposing defense cooled down a red-hot offense, holding them to just three points, and the Seahawks secured the title of the best division this season in the NFL by defeating the 49ers 13-3 on Saturday night in Santa Clara.

The victory means the path to the Super Bowl in the NFC will be through Seattle. The new NFC West champions secured the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs with a 14-3 record.

Had the 49ers (12-5) won the game, they would have secured a bye week and wouldn't have had to leave their stadium for the rest of the playoffs, even with the possibility of playing the Super Bowl at home. Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara will host Super Bowl LX on February 8.

Instead, the team coached by Kyle Shanahan—stopped for just 173 total yards—will now have to play in the wild-card round on the road and possibly in extreme weather. If the Rams (11-5) win their game this Sunday against Arizona (3-13), the 49ers will be the sixth seed in the NFC. Their opponent will be Philadelphia or Chicago.

Seattle has been one of the best teams in the NFL this season, but the game that catapulted them to the top was in Week 16 when they rose from the canvas against the Rams, who were then the No. 1 team in the conference, to win in overtime and take control of their destiny.

Seahawks let the 49ers off the hook in the first half

Seattle dominated the first half against a battered team, but couldn't reflect it on the scoreboard, going into halftime with only a 10-3 lead.

The Seahawks had a first down at the 1-yard line after dominating the first half, however, they decided to pass and quarterback Sam Darnold (20-26, 198 yards) was sacked. Later, they played 4th down. Instead of taking three points, they failed to convert on an incomplete pass. Although on their next possession they scored a touchdown on a 27-yard run by Zach Charbonnet,The Seahawks wasted another opportunity early in the second quarter with a missed 47-yard field goal attempt by Jason Myers, who also missed near the end of the game. In the first half, Seattle had 12 first downs to the home team's 3 and total yards of 196 to 69. San Francisco, playing without their star left tackle Trent Williams, never got their ground game going, and in short, their offense never clicked. It's worth noting that they had scored 37, 48, and 42 points in their previous three games, looking unstoppable. In the second half, the 49ers had limited possession in a solid defensive battle. But their best run fizzled out in the fourth quarter when star running back Christian McCaffrey dropped a Brock Purdy pass inside the 5-yard line, and the ball was intercepted by Drake Thomas. Seattle ran down the clock to stifle their opponents. The visiting team had the ball for almost 38 of the 60 minutes of the game. The Seahawks rushed 39 times for 180 yards, while their defense limited Purdy to just two third-down conversions the entire game.

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