The Seahawks travel to the Bay Area this weekend for a Week 18 game against the 49ers that is about as big as regular-season games get. At 13-3, the Seahawks can clinch the NFC West title, as well as the conference's top seed and the first-round bye that comes with it, with a win or a tie Saturday night at Levi's Stadium. The 49ers (12-4), meanwhile, would be the division champs and No. 1 seed if they win. The losing team still makes the playoffs, but as a wild card team, meaning instead of a weekend off, they'd be on the road for the wild card round of the postseason.

With that in mind, here are five things to watch when the Seahawks and 49ers face off on Saturday night:

1. How does the Seahawks' day-to-day process help them handle a game of such big magnitude?

From the day the Seahawks reported for offseason workouts in April to the days leading up to some of their biggest, prime-time games this season, players and coaches have maintained the approach that focusing on the day-to-day process, not the big-picture results, is the key to, as Mike Macdonald likes to put it, stacking wins.

That approach has worked incredibly well so far this season, and now it will be tested in a big way when the Seahawks and 49ers play in a regular-season finale with a ton on the line. Players know the stakes, there's no way to avoid how significant the game is, with a win meaning a division title and a first-round bye, and a loss meaning road games in the postseason.

But the key is to be aware of all of that without letting it become a distraction that gets the Seahawks away from what has worked so well to get them to this point.

"We got here by our mentality on how we approach every day," Macdonald said earlier in the week. "And that's what we're going to do this week, and that's what we're going to do next week, whether we're playing or not. And then that's just how we're going to roll. It just cleans it up. It's just worry about the stuff we can control, which right now it's, 'Hey, we get an opportunity to move around outside and get our timing down and clean up some early down stuff, work on third down, red zone.' I mean, those are the things our guys are thinking about right now. And there's some things that we feel like we need to be able to do to play really good ball and give ourselves a chance to win. And we'll check that at the end of practice and see the progress. And that's what we do on Thursday. So that's honestly really what we're focused on."

Telling players not to let this game and the stakes of it become a distraction might seem like a big ask considering the playoff implications, but it's the consistency of the approach through the entire year that should help the Seahawks stay focused on the right things this week.

"I think it's hard to do if that's not how you've taken the approach throughout the year," receiver Cooper Kupp said, "But something that's talked about, something we talk about week in and week out here, about our process, about how we're going to handle our day to day and winning the day, what's important right now, handle that…I think because we've taken that approach every single week since back in April, it makes it easy to just say this is just another game. We get an opportunity to go out there and play against a real good football team. And it's about us being able to execute our stuff."

2. Can Seattle's offense clean up its two reoccurring issues?

There's so much to like about what the Seahawks have done on offense this season, from the fact that they've scored the second most points in the league this season, a franchise-record total of 470, to the Pro-Bowl play of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the league's leading receiver, and quarterback Sam Darnold, to the recent success of the run game, which has produced 334 yards over the last two games.

But for all the Seahawks have done well on offense, there are two things they'd like to clean up heading into the playoffs—their propensity to turn the ball over too frequently, and their recent issues with slow starts. Neither has frequently cost the Seahawks, as is evident in their 13-3 record and league-best plus-181 point differential, but against the quality of opponents the Seahawks will be facing, starting with Saturday's game, the know they need to be better.

Even if the Seahawks are usually winning in spite of their turnovers, they are not happy with their total of 28 this season, which is the second highest in the NFL.

"It's not a number that we're proud of at all, something that we're always preaching, things that we've got to improve on," said offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. "Obviously, we want to maximize our possessions and we're giving away points when we give the ball away. So, whether it's decision making, throwing the ball, holding onto it, then protecting our quarterback so that we're not getting sack fumbles. There's a lot of things that go on there, but something's got to get better if we want to be a championship team."

As the person handling the ball every play and making the most significant decisions, Darnold has been involved in most of Seattle's turnovers this year—that's just the nature of the position—and while plenty of those were the result of things partially or entirely out of his control on a play, he knows that as the team's quarterback, ball security has to start with him.

"Turnovers, they're unacceptable," Darnold said. "No matter how they come. Obviously tipped balls, some things like that, you would like to say, 'Oh man, that's out of my control,' but did I need to be in that position for that guy to tip that ball? So, I think that all turnovers are all plays where we can look at ourselves and be like, 'Oh, man, I could have done better on that play.' Which is almost every play if you think about it, you can always be a little bit better every single play. This team can continue to get better, and I look at that as me personally. That's the best part about this team is we've got a ton of guys that look in the mirror first and foremost, like, 'How can I be better for the team?' And if we all have that mindset, which we do have, we're just going to continue to get better and stack good days and stack wins."

As for the slow starts, that hasn't been a season-long problem but one that has come up in recent games, including last week's win in which the Seahawks were held to a single field goal in the first half. The good news is that, with the exception of a close, low-scoring win over the Colts, the Seahawks have broken out with big second halves, but like the turnovers, the Seahawks know the need to be better early in games against top opponents.

"We can come out faster," Darnold said. "At the end of the day, we have a plan of how we want to come out and attack a team and attack the game, and I think we've just got to do a better job of executing, and that's really it… There's always stuff that we can improve on. We're always focusing on getting in and out of the huddle, every practice, every game. I'm making sure the guys are in there, we're getting out, we're getting the personnels in and out. So, yeah, just having a smooth operation, it can always be better even if we're snapping the ball at 20 seconds on the play clock, we can always be have a better operation."

3. Does Seattle's run game continue to put up big numbers?

When the 49ers and Seahawks faced off to start the regular season, the Seahawks managed only 84 rushing yards on 26 carries, hardly the ground attack they were hoping for after talking throughout the offseason and training camp about how important it was to run the ball.

Nearly a full season later, the Seahawks' ground game looks a lot different than it did in Week 1. After finishing with fewer than 90 rushing yards in four of their first eight games, the Seahawks have had at least 114 rushing yards in seven of their last eight games, including two of their three highest totals of the season in the past two weeks, with the team producing 334 rushing yards in wins over the Rams and Panthers.

"You just continue to see guys get better," Kubiak said. "Offensive line guys gelling together, runners, running hard, receivers, blocking, quarterbacks getting us into the right check. So, it's just been a season-long process."

A key component of Seattle's run game all season, and especially of late, is the ability to rely on two different starting-caliber backs. Two weeks ago, it was Kenneth Walker III eclipsing the 100-yard mark, while also adding 64 receiving yards, then on Sunday in Carolina, Zach Charbonnet had his first 100-yard game of the season.

"I've said from the beginning, I see it as, we have two ones as far as our half back," Kubiak said. "One day it's K9's day, one day it's Zach's day. One day it's going to be Cam Akers' day, with that third back in there. We've always got guys that, when their number is called, they go and perform. Zach had a heck of the game, and it takes everybody to win, that position is no different."

4. How does Seattle's dominant defense hold up against another elite running back?

Among the many things the Seahawks have done well on defense this season, arguably the most important is the way they have stopped the run. The Seahawks have not allowed a 100-yard rusher this season, and that streak is up to 25 games going back to last season, the longest current streak in the league and the longest in team history. The Seahawks are holding opponents to a league-low 3.7 yards-per-carry average, and have allowed the third fewest rushing yards overall, a big reason why the pass rush has been able to be so effective on longer passing downs.

Already the Seahawks have, in recent weeks, contained two of the league's top backs in Atlanta's Bijan Robinson and Indianapolis' Jonathan Taylor, as well as a Rams two-headed rushing attack that is one of the league's best. Up next, however, might be the toughest test yet when it comes to keeping a running back in check, San Francisco's Christian McCaffrey.

A two-time first-team All-Pro and four-time Pro-Bowl selection, McCaffrey is having one of the best years of his nine-year career while being the focal point of the 49ers offense. McCaffrey, who as a league-high 399 touches with 303 carries and 96 receptions, has surpassed 2,000 scrimmage yards for the third time in his career, and has scored 17 total touchdowns. The 49ers have other weapons, to be sure, but keep McCaffrey from taking over has to be the top priority.

"He's a real challenge," defensive coordinator Aden Durde said. "At times he can make you question what kind of coverage you want to play. He can make you think about matchups and the situations they could put you in. He's an elite player and you've got respect the way he plays the game.

"He's an extremely great athlete and that shows up on the field. His understanding of zones, when to sit down, when to move and how to break away from leverage. You see it all over the tape. He plays the game like a receiver and plays the game like a really good running back too."

5. Can the Seahawks clinch homefield advantage by setting another record for road success?

Given how well the Seahawks have played on the road under Macdonald the past two seasons, it's only fitting that their hopes for earning homefield advantage in the playoffs hinge on earning one more win on the road.

The Seahawks are 7-1 this season away from Lumen Field, their second straight season with seven road wins, matching a franchise record, and they can break that record with one more victory on Saturday. With so much at stake for both teams and a Saturday night kickoff conducive to fans being, um, well-hydrated, Levi's Stadium should be about as loud as the Seahawks have experienced in that building, but after so many road wins the past two seasons, the Seahawks feel like they're ready for the challenge.

"I think the great thing about this team is no matter where we are, no matter what the environment's like, we're going to go out there and play really good football," Darnold said. "We're going to play complementary football, all three phases helping each other, and that's it."