NFL preview: Seattle Seahawks visit San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium, live on Sky Sports
Thursday 27 November 2014 15:08, UK
There will be little Thanksgiving love on show when the Seattle Seahawks travel to Levi's Stadium to face the San Francisco 49ers.
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Both sides are 7-4 and trail NFL West leaders Arizona by two games, and defeat on Thursday night could spell playoff disaster for either team.
Seattle dug themselves out of a hole with a 19-3 victory over the Cardinals last weekend, giving the first real glimpse of the defence that dominated in 2013.
Despite the barely squeezing past the Washington Redskins 17-13 in Week 12, the 49ers remain in the playoff hunt. This Thanksgiving tie, and the pair's match-up again on 14 December, will be pivotal in deciding who makes it to post season - let alone who wins the bragging rights for 2014.
What makes them such big rivals is their similarities - ferocious defence is on the menu as they head into Week 13 with the top two defences in the NFL (Seattle No 1, San Francisco No 2), they both like to lead with the running game and they also both have mobile quarterbacks capable of making plays on the ground as well as with their arm.
There are other rivalries in the NFL that produce great intensity - Baltimore and Pittsburgh for example - but there remains a grudging respect between that duo. Put Seattle and San Francisco on the same field and all that emerges is animosity.
It was Seattle who held the edge in last season's NFC title game and Richard Sherman's extraordinary verbal assualt on Michael Crabtree in an emotional post-game interview encapsulated how much they dislike each other.
Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch is coming off his second-worst effort of the season against Arizona with just 39 rushing yards, but he was hampered by an ongoing back issue.
However, the San Francisco defence is missing some key components, especially linebackers NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis. That means some soft spots to exploit on the inside - exactly where the attritional Lynch thrives - and the team's talisman can rise to yet another challenge against a team which has seen him thrive historically, even going right back to his days in Buffalo.
It is worth keeping in mind too that the 49ers run defence has allowed 100-yard games from Mark Ingram and Alfred Morris over the last month and with no disrespect to that duo, the fearsome Lynch is a notch or two higher. He's only three weeks off a four touchdown effort against the New York Giants.
What they said...
"All throughout the season, you always have these opportunities to go one way or another, and to grow, hopefully, in the right direction. We made a real nice shift and took a nice step forward to getting to where we want to get." Seattle head coach Pete Carroll.
"Probably the biggest thing is what our team's accomplished over the last three games, winning three games and they're as close as you can possibly have games be. And have our team prevail, I think it's a great credit to the players." San Francisco head coach Jim Harbaugh.
Watch Seattle @ San Francisco live on Sky Sports 1 on Friday morning from 12.30am
