49ers Claim NFC's No. 1 Seed After Stopping Seahawks in Wild Finish

The NFC's No. 1 seed came down to the final seconds of the regular season and also a few inches.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Vince Lombardi's famous words about football being a "game of inches" proved to be right on Sunday night. The NFC West and No. 1 seed in the NFC came down to not only the final seconds of Sunday Night Football, but also a few inches.

With just seconds to play in the game, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson hit tight end Jacob Hollister near the goal line on fourth-and-goal. But Hollister was held inches short of a game-winning touchdown by San Francisco’s Dre Greenlaw, giving the 49ers a 26-21 victory.

The @49ers stop the Seahawks at the goal line to win the NFC West! #GoNiners pic.twitter.com/nyHKB9Tioc

— NFL (@NFL) December 30, 2019

Wilson orchestrated a final drive to get Seattle near the goal line. 

With 42 seconds to play, he converted a fourth and 10 pass to WR John Ursua to move the ball to San Francisco's 1-yard-line. But after hustling up to the line of scrimmage to spike the football on first down, Seattle took a delay of game penalty to back the football up to the 49ers' five. After two incomplete passes and the aforementioned goal-line stuff, Wilson finish with 233 passing yards, instead of the  234 passing yards that would have given his team a victory. 

As a result of the wild finish, the 49ers (13-3) clinched the division title and locked up the NFC’s No. 1 overall seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Seattle (11-5) is the NFC’s No. 5 seed and will travel to Philadelphia for a wild-card game next weekend.

Jimmy Garoppolo finished with 285 yards passing in the victory, missing only four of his 22 pass attempts. He was aided by 128 rushing yards from San Francisco's deep backfield, the majority of which came from Raheem Mostert.