If you already haven’t, now's the time for 49ers fans to email your boss, asking to leave work early a week from Monday.
That's because for the first time in half a decade, a matchup between the 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks is a must-watch game across the country, not just on the West Coast.
Prime-time television.
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The leading NFL MVP candidate taking on the favorite for Defensive Rookie of the Year, if not overall Defensive Player of the Year.
Russell Wilson has put on a show through Seattle’s first nine games, posting a staggering 22-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio and leading the Seahawks to a 7-2 record.
Nick Bosa, meanwhile, has torn up the NFL in his rookie season for the 49ers, posting seven sacks through eight games and sharing the league lead in tackles for loss as part of the second-most dominant defense in football.
The Seahawks got a scare Sunday, as habitually turnover-prone Jameis Winston and the Buccaneers pushed them to overtime on the road, before Wilson marched his offense down the field and completed another signature game-winning drive.
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Week 10’s Monday Night Football matchup is reminiscent of the iconic battles between Richard Sherman's “Legion of Boom” and future Hall of Famers Patrick Willis and Justin Smith. Back when Sherman roamed the secondary in Seattle, crushing championship dreams and making sure you didn’t forget about it after the fact.
So many tremendous clashes, including that electrifying 2013 NFC Championship Game, in which Sherman iced a Seahawks Super Bowl trip by tipping a Colin Kaepernick fade route into linebacker Malcolm Smith's hands.
Regardless of what's happened in the past, 2019 has brought us one good thing at least: the return of one of the great NFL rivalries of the decade.
Since 2013, however, it hasn't been much of a fight. The 49ers have won only once in that span, and it came with Nick Mullens at quarterback and snapped a four-game winning streak for Seattle, not to mention a 10-game winning streak against San Francisco.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and an elite defense now have the chance to start a new streak, by winning back-to-back games against the Seahawks for the first time since 2011.
After Garoppolo's best game as a 49er in a Week 9 win at Arizona, will he be able to outduel one of the NFL's best signal-callers?
[RELATED: Can Jimmy G snap 49ers' 16-year Pro Bowl QB drought?]
An undefeated team, San Francisco can solidify its place among the NFL's elite and flip this lopsided rivalry on its head with a win.
But there's a lot more than just pride at stake for San Francisco. The 49ers hold a game and a half lead over the Seahawks in the NFC West, as Seattle's bye won't come until Week 11, giving Pete Carroll's team an extra week to rest after what's sure to be an extremely physical contest.
With a win, the Seahawks would put ample pressure on coach Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers to continue winning, something that gets increasingly more difficult with San Francisco facing the second-toughest remaining schedule of any NFL team. However, the only team with a tougher schedule based on winning percentage? You guessed it -- the Seahawks.
And if your boss decides that you can’t get out of work early that night, you have a full week to come up with a great excuse for your sick note. This is a can’t-miss matchup between two of the best the NFC has to offer.
Programming alert: Ahead of the 49ers-Seahawks game on Monday, Nov. 11, tune in to NBC Sports Bay Area at 4 p.m. PT for 49ers Pregame Live. After the game, tune back in for 49ers Postgame Live.