The San Francisco 49ers lost the NFC Championship last season, missing out on a Super Bowl berth.
But Kyle Shanahan's team is on track to earn home-field advantage in the NFC and return to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2019 season.
The NFC West champions' first task will be to defeat the upstart Green Bay Packers, who surprised Dallas in the wild-card round of the playoffs last week.
The two teams will meet in the divisional round on Saturday at Levi's Stadium.
The Packers opened up a 27-0 lead over the Cowboys at the half, scoring on Aaron Jones' two touchdown runs and an interception return.
Green Bay held off Dallas 48-32, but easily overcame a seven-point deficit and won their fourth straight game overall.
The 49ers finished as the NFC's top seed with a 12-5 record despite losing two of their final three games of the regular season.
The loss to the Rams in Week 18 didn't mean much with so many starters sitting, but quarterback Brock Purdy's MVP hopes were boosted by a 33-19 loss at home against the Ravens two weeks ago. shattered by the defeat.
Purdy was intercepted four times, and the Niners suffered three losses to the AFC North (the only division in the NFL where every team finished with a winning record).
The good news for the Niners is that they covered the spread in nine of their 12 wins, and two of the wins that weren't covered came when they were favored by 13 or more points.
San Francisco has won each of its last four playoff games played at Levi's Stadium, three of them by double digits.
The shortest margin of victory was seven points in last season's district championship win over the Cowboys, 19-12.
Green Bay has essentially been playing postseason football for the past four weeks, and a loss in that period would mean they would be eliminated from the playoffs.
Quarterback Jordan Love improved over the second half of the season, throwing 21 touchdown passes and only one interception over the past nine games.
The last time these teams met in the playoffs was when San Francisco was competing in the 2021 NFC Championship, where the 49ers defeated the Packers 13-10 by six points at Lambeau Field.
Green Bay was very impressive in last week's loss to Dallas, but San Francisco is better in all three phases of the game.
Do you want to bet on the NFL?
Dallas is different, but heading to the Bay Area to take on a loaded 49ers team is a different animal.
San Francisco has two weeks of rest (three weeks including Week 18, when the Niners rested their starting pitcher), but the Packers will play their fourth road game in five weeks.
We have to catch up with them someday.
This seems to be the place.
They will tie San Francisco with 9.5 points and beat Green Bay to advance to the NFC Championship for the third consecutive year.
choose: 49ers -9.5 (-110, BetMGM)
