Seahawks may have to win NFC West twice to reach Super LX

To earn a berth to Super Bowl LX, the Seattle Seahawks may have to win the NFC West ... twice.

The path to Santa Clara begins Saturday night when the Seahawks host the San Francisco 49ers at Lumen Field. A win in that game and they'll host the NFC Championship, possibly against the Los Angeles Rams who are favored over the Chicago Bears in the other Divisional Round game.

MORE: NFL reveals Divisional Round kickoff time and hands Seahawks big advantage over 49ers

Seattle split games with both the Niners and Rams during the regular season, which was good enough to win the regular-season division title. Now a sweep of their two biggest rivals stands in the way of the Super Bowl.

No doubt this season the NFC's West is the NFL's Best.

The Seahawks and Niners had an epic showdown just two weeks ago at Levi's Stadium. That one featured the first regular-season finale in league history with two teams on six-game winning streaks. Seattle won, 13-3, to capture the West, the No. 1 seed and a Bye last weekend.

The Seahawks enter Saturday having won seven in a row. They haven't lost since Nov. 16, by two points to the Rams. The 49ers are 7-1 in their last eight, and since before Halloween have only lost to the Seahawks, Rams and Houston Texans, who take a nine-game winning streak into their AFC Divisional Round playoff game this weekend. The Rams are 10-3 since Oct. 2, including a win last weekend at the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.

MORE: Deep-dive metric reveals why Seahawks are clearly Super Bowl LX favorites

In the Seahawks' two meetings against the 49ers neither team has broken 17 points. In two games against the Rams the margins have been two and one point, with the most recent game on Dec. 18 going to overtime.

Nothing is easy in the NFL. But the Seahawks' road will be atypically difficult, perhaps beating the Niners and Rams again, and in essence winning two versions of the NFC West.

Seahawks-Rams | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

More Seahawks on SI stories