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The 26-21 win that ensured the San Francisco 49ers wouldn't have to travel for the entire month of January wasn't clean or pretty. San Francisco clinched the top seed by literally one inch, and only after giving up a big lead and then getting some late breaks from both the officials and Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll.
But road wins over experienced, playoff-caliber opponents are almost never pretty, rarely clean. The key is that, with their fate essentially on the line, a San Francisco team that just arrived on the national stage as a contender confirmed that it isn't too green to gut out tough wins under playoff-like spotlights.