Seattle Seahawks secure NFC's No. 1 seed with 13-3 victory - ESPN

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Seattle Seahawks will head into the playoffs as the NFC's No. 1 seed, earning a first-round bye and home-field advantage with their 13-3 win over the San Francisco 49ers Saturday at Levi's Stadium.

With the 49ers' home stadium hosting Super Bowl LX, Mike Macdonald's team is hoping to return in five weeks. And the Seahawks took a big step toward that Saturday night.

With the NFC West title and top seed on the line, they leaned on their defense and run game on their way to a seventh straight win.

Sam Darnold was in this position a year ago with the Minnesota Vikings, needing a win in the regular-season finale to earn the No. 1 seed. But he struggled in a blowout loss to the Detroit Lions, completing only 18 of 41 attempts. Darnold went 14-3 with Minnesota and made the Pro Bowl, but his breakthrough season came to an end a week later when he was sacked nine times in a wild-card loss to the Los Angeles Rams, fueling questions about his big-game ability.

The Seahawks signed Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million deal in March after trading Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders. Darnold led Seattle to a 13-3 record entering Week 18 and made his second straight Pro Bowl despite committing an NFL-high 20 turnovers.

In one of the biggest games of his career Saturday night, Darnold played well enough — and he took care of the ball. Seattle's quarterback didn't throw a touchdown pass while completing 20 of 26 attempts for 198 yards. But he didn't turn the ball over.

«It was a total team effort tonight,» Darnold said in his postgame, on-field interview with Laura Rutledge on ESPN. «I'm so proud of those guys in the locker room.»

With their win, the Seahawks improved to an NFL-best 15-2 on the road in two