Monday Night Battle Not Important For Ravens' Quest For AFC's No. 1 Seed

Monday Night's contest against the San Francisco 49ers might not be the most important for the Baltimore Ravens.

For a game that features the top two teams in either conference, Monday Night's battle between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers has little effect on the remainder of the 2023 season. 

San Francisco has tie-breakers and a full-game lead over every other team in the NFC. For the Ravens, the game might mean even less. 

Lamar Jackson / Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

To start, Baltimore sits at the top of the AFC playoff picture with an 11-3 record. They have a full-game lead on the second-place Miami Dolphins in the AFC and a two-game lead over the Kansas City Chiefs in third. 

Here's how the current playoff standings look for the AFC division leaders and their conference record:

1. Baltimore Ravens: 11-3 (7-3 Conference Record)
2. Miami Dolphins: 10-4 (7-3 Conference Record)
3. Kansas City Chiefs: 9-5 (7-2 Conference Record)
4. Jacksonville Jaguars: 8-6 (6-5 Conference Record) 

With the 49ers as the top seed in the NFC, a loss Monday night in Santa Clara would be meaningless to the Ravens in their quest for the top overall seed. They have two games left in the season against the Dolphins at M&T Bank Stadium, and in the final week of the year against a desperate Pittsburgh Steelers squad. 

Along the way, the Dolphins also have to play a Dallas Cowboys team that is coming off an embarrassing loss of their own. That means even if Baltimore were to drop this upcoming game to the 49ers, there is still a good chance that they will have a game-up on Miami for the top overall seed. 

Miami also has to play a surging Buffalo Bills squad in the final game of the year - a clear sign that there are losses on the docket for a team that does not have a win over an organization with an above .500 record. 

That would leave the defending Super Bowl Champion Chiefs as a threat to the Ravens for the top seed. Kansas City must deal with a Las Vegas Raiders team that is scrappy, a Cincinnati Bengals roster playing strong ball without Joe Burrow, and a poor Los Angeles Chargers team without Justin Hebert. 

John Harbaugh, Ravens Ready For 'Big Challenge' Against 49ers

Hardly a tough road to end the year.

The hard part for Baltimore when it comes to Kansas City is that the Chiefs have a strong 7-2 mark in the conference - one less loss than the Ravens. If a tie were to be made for the top spot, the champs would get the first-round bye week due to that conference record. 

Judging on the matter of importance, Monday is as meaningless as they come for Baltimore. The focus should be on making sure they leave California as healthy as possible to prepare for the final two AFC clashes of the year. 

Those, at the very least, could determine if the team ends up with a first-round bye week or not.