I can't believe it has taken until Week 13 for the NFL to schedule the first meeting of the season between the Seahawks and 49ers, easily the best and most-heated rivalry in the league right now. But the wait has been worth it. Seattle opened the season as the Super Bowl favorite, with San Francisco not far behind at No. 3 (Denver in between). Presumably either the Seahawks or 49ers would win the NFC West and take the top seed in the conference and the other would get the top wild-card spot. Wouldn't have surprised anyone to see both teams win 12 games. They did last year when the Niners won exactly that many and Seattle one more in the regular season.

Yet here we are with both clubs at 7-4, and the loser of Thursday night's game is in major trouble to make the playoffs. The Seahawks and 49ers are each two games behind Arizona in the West. The Cards have beaten San Francisco once but close the season there. Seattle easily handled visiting Arizona last week and goes to the desert in Week 16. So maybe the division race isn't totally over yet, but if the Cards win this week in Atlanta I think it might be because they should win Week 14 at home vs. Kansas City and Week 15 at St. Louis (although neither certainly a lock). Arizona is a -150 division favorite at Sportsbook.ag with Seattle at +300 and San Francisco at +350.

Just for argument's sake, let's lock down the four division winners: Arizona in the NFC West, Green Bay in the NFC North, whichever crap team wins the NFC South, and Philadelphia in the NFC East (although I projected Eagles to lose in Dallas on Thursday). So for the two wild-card spots, that would leave Detroit (currently 7-4), Dallas (8-3) and the Seahawks and 49ers.

Seattle has the hardest remaining schedule in the conference . Including Thursday's game the Seahawks' remaining opponents have a winning percentage of .636. After the Niners it's at Eagles, vs. 49ers, at Cardinals, vs. Rams. San Francisco's remaining opponents have a winning percentage of .564. After Seattle it's at Raiders, at Seahawks, vs. Chargers, vs. Cardinals.

I expect Detroit to beat Chicago in Thursday's first game to move to 8-4, and the Lions have only one opponent with a winning record the rest of the way: at Green Bay in Week 17. So needless to say, this game is vitally important. More so for San Francisco because I don't see it winning in Seattle in two weeks. By the way, the Seahawks would lose a head-to-head tiebreaker with Dallas but didn't play Detroit and obviously still have that Philly matchup should the Cowboys win the NFC East. The Niners win head-to-head tiebreakers with both the Cowboys and Eagles and don't play Detroit.

Seahawks at 49ers Betting Story Lines

Both clubs are starting to play to expectations. Seattle dominated Arizona last week 19-3 for its fourth win in five games. The Seahawks didn't do anything impressive on offense against a very good Arizona defense but held the Cardinals to 204 total yards. Seattle got back the heart-and-soul of its defense, linebacker Bobby Wagner, for the Arizona game. It was his first game in six weeks. In addition, excellent safety Kam Chancellor played without pain for the first time all season. Those two change this defense entirely. The Seahawks had all their defensive starters back Sunday, except for nose tackle Brandon Mebane (out for season), for the first time since Oct. 12. It was the fewest points Seattle had allowed since Dec. 15 of last year when it blanked the Giants.

San Francisco has followed a two-game losing streak with three straight wins for the second time this season. The defense has been stellar the past two weeks, holding the Giants to 10 points and picking off Eli manning five times in Week 11, and then Washington had just 213 yards and two first-down conversions last week. The Niners lost Pro Bowl linebacker Patrick Willis for the season a few weeks ago, but they have a rising superstar at that spot in rookie Chris Borland. The third-rounder out of Wisconsin had 56 tackles and two interceptions in the past four games. Think about this for a minute: If the Niners desire and can afford it next season they could have Aldon Smith, Willis, Borland and NaVorro Bowman as their starting linebackers. That's a joke. Smith, by the way, had two sacks last week in his second game back off suspension. Bowman may or may not play this season off last year's serious knee injury suffered in the NFC title game.

Seattle won two of three last season vs. the Niners, both at home. That of course includes the NFC title game where the Niners were the better team for three quarters, but Colin Kaepernick turned it over three times in the fourth.

Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers NFL Week 13 Thanksgiving Betting Odds and Trends

At 5Dimes , this game is currently a pick'em. On alternate lines the 49ers are favored at -1 (-110), -1.5 (-105) and -2 (+100). There is no moneyline. The total is 39.5 points. Seattle is 5-6 against the spread (1-4 on road) and 7-4 "over/under" (3-2 on road). San Francisco is 6-5 ATS (2-3 at home) and 4-7 O/U (1-4 at home).

Seattle has covered four straight Thursday games. It is 8-3 ATS in its past 11 road games vs. teams with a winning home record. The Niners are 1-4 ATS in their past five after allowing less than 15 points in their previous game. The over is 4-0 in Seattle's past four after a win. The under is 6-1 in San Francisco's past seven Thursday games. Seattle has covered the past five meetings. The under is 5-1 in the past six.

Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers Expert Picks and Betting Predictions

This is Seattle's first game at the new Levi's Stadium, and that's probably just fine with the Seahawks as they had lost five straight at Candlestick Park.

These teams are so alike. They prefer to win with the running game and defense and don't ask their QBs to do too much. Kaepernick has just one 300-yard game this year and hasn't had more than one TD pass in a game since Oct. 13. He's not running much. Russell Wilson also has just one 300-yard game and hasn't topped 211 in his past five. He has only four TD passes in that stretch. Wilson does have three 100-yard rushing games this season and has an outside shot at 1,000. At his current pace, Wilson would finish with 938.

I like the Niners to hold serve at home barely -- with Kaepernick burning the Seahawks with his legs again -- and lean over slightly as it's such a low total.

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