The San Francisco 49ers went into Week 16 with breathing room in the race for the one seed in the NFC.

It was taken away from them in brutal fashion on Christmas Day as they suffered a 33-19 defeat to the Baltimore Ravens in a battle of the two one seeds in the respective conferences.

Predictably, the loss sees the 49ers fall off the top spot in the NFL power rankings coming out of Week 16, with the Ravens displacing them as the league's premier team.

As A to Z Sports' Destin Adams writes in the power rankings, the concern for the 49ers is now a lack of room for error.

"The 49ers league-leading six-game winning streak was stopped in its tracks by the Ravens in Week 16. And it seemed like the end of the line for Brock Purdy's MVP hopes after his worst performance of the season with four interceptions and zero touchdowns. The 49ers now have no room for error in their hopes to be the top seed in the NFC, as they are in a three-way tie with the Detroit Lions and the Philadelphia Eaglesat 11-4; another loss in the next two weeks could be detrimental to the NFC playoffs going through San Francisco."

San Francisco will be the one seed if they beat the Washington Commanders this week and the Lions and Eagles suffer defeats to the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals respectively.

But such a scenario is improbable, and the 49ers know they will likely need to win both of their final two games to be sure of the one seed. Had they beaten the Ravens, they could have looked forward to the possibility of clinching this week and resting starters against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 18.

Instead the race for the one seed looks set to go the wire. That won't daunt the 49ers, but it's a situation they could have avoided with better execution against the Ravens.

49ers still heavy Super Bowl favorites despite Christmas blowout

Everything is still in their hands.