One Christmas Present for the 49ers

Do your thing, Santa.

Grant Cohn | Dec 22, 2023

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers don't need much from Santa Claus this year.

They're the No. 1 seed in the NFC, and if they win two of their next three games, which they almost certainly will, then they'll have a first-round bye and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.

But if there's one thing Santa can gift the 49ers, it's not having to face the Rams in the playoffs.

The Rams have won five of their past six games -- they're as hot as any team in the NFL. Their one loss came in overtime to the Ravens, who are one of the best teams in football.

The Rams have a Super Bowl winning quarterback in Matthew Stafford and a Super Bowl winning coach in Sean McVay, plus a rookie of the Year candidate in Puka Nacua. And of all the teams in the NFC, the Rams are the only one that's not intimidated by them, because the Rams beat them in the NFC Championship game just two years ago.

The Cowboys definitely are intimidated by the 49ers -- everytime those teams face each other, the Cowboys play worse. Dak Prescott seems decidedly scared to stand in the pocket against the 49ers ferocious pass rush.

The Eagles currently seem intimidated by everyone -- they just lost to the Seahawks. They used to be bullies, but the 49ers exposed them and not they can't beat anyone.

The Lions are a quality team, but their quarterback is Jared Goff, and he has lost five starts in a row to the 49ers. Every time he faces Nick Bosa and Arik Armstead, Goff looks like a deer in headlights. The 49ers aren't afraid of him.

That leaves the Rams as the only team in the NFC that could give the 49ers something to worry about.

If Santa is real, the 49ers won't have to face the Rams after Week 18.

Do your thing, Santa.

Published Dec 22, 2023

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.