Stakes high for 49ers, Seahawks in showdown (w/video)

SANTA CLARA - After the San Francisco 49ers won another close game Sunday afternoon, coach Jim Harbaugh watched that night’s nationally televised NFL game with his family. During one network promotion for San Francisco’s game on Thanksgiving against the NFC West rival Seattle Seahawks, NBC showed a gang of live turkeys. Harbaugh’s three youngest children were excited.

“And then the next shot, they had loaded the turkeys onto a truck and they were driving them away,” Harbaugh said Monday. “And the kids were like, ‘Where are they going?’ And we kind of thought, maybe we won’t have turkey this year for Thanksgiving.”

Dinner plans were scuttled by the schedule, anyway, with an evening kickoff at Levi’s Stadium. With both the 49ers and the Seahawks at 7-4, two games behind the division-leading Arizona Cardinals (9-2), the loser on Thanksgiving might be left out in the cold.

The 49ers have reached the conference championship game the past three seasons. The Seahawks beat the 49ers there in January, barely, then won the Super Bowl. The teams have combined for 47 regular-season and eight postseason victories the past two seasons, more than any division rivals.

Now they play two of their next three games against one another, and it looks like at least one of them could miss the playoffs. Season obituaries, at least rough drafts, will be written for tonight’s loser.

“If we’re good enough to be in, we’ll know,” Harbaugh said of the playoffs. “We’ll know soon enough.”

The problem for the 49ers and the Seahawks is not just one another, but the Cardinals, who won nine of their first 10 games before losing in Seattle on Sunday. Without a division title, the 49ers and the Seahawks would be left fighting for two wild-card spots, along with the likes of Detroit (7-4), Dallas and Philadelphia (both 8-3).

The 49ers were 7-4 at this point last year, too, and finished ?12-4. There is no palpable sense of concern, at least within team headquarters.

“We’re in the same spot we were last year, something we’re very familiar with,” San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick said. “We just have teams that are in other positions now.”

Not only do the 49ers and the Seahawks play one another again on Dec. 14 in Seattle, but they each play the Cardinals in late December.

“This season is just beginning, with all of the games that we’ll be playing here in the next month-and-a-half,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said.

It has been a strange season for both teams. Seattle opened by trouncing the formidable Green Bay Packers, then lost three of its next five games. Dissension festered in the locker room. Receiver Percy Harvin was traded to the New York Jets amid reports that he did not get along with teammates. The Seahawks lost a game at CenturyLink Field, the best home-field advantage in the league, then struggled to shake off the winless Oakland Raiders there.

It looked likely that the Seahawks would be the 10th team in a row unable to successfully defend a Super Bowl title.

But an attitude adjustment was credited for helping the Seahawks win four of the past five games, including Sunday’s 19-3 victory over Arizona.

“All throughout the season, you always have these opportunities to go one way or another, and to grow, hopefully, in the right direction,” Carroll said. “We made a real nice shift and took a nice step forward to getting to where we want to get.”

Seattle’s vital signs are strong - but so is the schedule. It has the league’s top rushing offense (170 yards per game) behind Marshawn Lynch, and the NFL’s top defense (297 yards allowed per game).

But the Seahawks sandwich their games with the 49ers around a trip to Philadelphia to play the Eagles, then face the Cardinals in Arizona. It is as difficult a stretch as any team faces over the next month.

The only certainty is that the Seahawks will garner headlines. Last week, Lynch was fined $100,000 for not speaking to the news media after a game. After playing the Cardinals, he answered questions - mostly by answering “yeah,” even if the query was not a yes-or-no proposition.

On Tuesday, cornerback Richard Sherman and receiver Doug Baldwin took to the lectern with a bit of satirical performance art aimed at what they see as the NFL’s hypocritical stances on news media obligations, sponsorships and player safety.

“Speaking of healthy, how do you feel about the NFL making you play two games in five days?” Baldwin asked from behind a full-size cutout of himself.

“Oh my gosh, geez,” Sherman said. “I almost didn’t realize that because they’ve been talking about players’ safety so much. Two games in five days doesn’t seem like you care about players’ safety much.”

The 49ers have their own issues and distractions. There is persistent speculation that Harbaugh’s relationship with his bosses has irretrievably spoiled and that he may explore other coaching options after the season. (The Oakland Raiders and the University of Michigan, Harbaugh’s alma mater, are among the presumed possibilities.)

On a conference call with reporters in Seattle on Tuesday, Kaepernick was asked if he believed that Harbaugh would return next season.

“I think he’ll be back,” he said.

Why? “His resume,” Kaepernick replied.

Harbaugh is 43-15-1 in four seasons. Two seasons ago, the 49ers lost the Super Bowl to Baltimore, coached by Harbaugh’s brother, John.

But this season has been rockier than any other. Linebacker Aldon Smith was suspended for the first nine games for violating the league’s substance-abuse and personal-conduct policies. Accusations of domestic violence shadowed defensive end Ray McDonald - but did not bench him - for the first half of the season before an announcement earlier this month that no charges were coming.

Injuries have hit several star players, including linebackers Patrick Willis, who is out for the season with a toe injury, and NaVorro Bowman, who has not played since last season’s playoffs because of a hurt knee.

San Francisco’s position presents a litany of points and counterpoints. The 49ers have a three-game winning streak, with each game decided in the final moments, but those opponents have a combined 10-23 record this season. They have the league’s second-ranked defense, in yards allowed, despite the player absences, but their plus-3 point differential (228 scored, 225 allowed) is the worst among all NFL teams with winning records.

“You make a deposit in the toughness account,” Harbaugh said of the close games. “And you’ll be able to make withdrawals from that later down the road.”

Later has arrived, sooner than expected. The Seahawks and the 49ers have earned the right to believe that seasons are intended to last deep into January, maybe even February.

Yet it is, still November. The loser today may have more hope than, say, a cartload of turkeys at Thanksgiving. But they would rather not see where that road leads.