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The 49ers haven’t clinched a playoff yet, but they came a step closer to achieving that goal on Sunday.

Tree Lance He threw a pair of touchdowns and defended after halftime to defeat Texas 23-7 at home. They will be in the playoffs if the Saints lose to the Panthers or beat the Rams in Week 18, although there will be other scenarios for them to come back with other results in the final week as well.

Lance made his second start to the junior season with him Jimmy Garoppolo He missed out with a right thumb injury and had trouble collecting points in the first half, but found more success after the first half. Hit Elijah Mitchell To land in the third quarter who first laid them all afternoon and then they were found Debo Samuel For a 45-yard score in the fourth quarter.

He finished 16 of 23 for 249 yards and ended up with a touchdown looming much larger than his interception in the first half. Mitchell ran 21 times for 119 yards and Brandon Ayuk He put 94 yards on four catches for the Niners.

The Texans picked up just 222 yards over the course of the afternoon and made their biggest second-half gain on a pair of overlap kicks in the pass that established Ka’imi Fairbairn He missed a field goal from 45 yards. Samuel scored a touchdown a few times later and the game was out of his reach once he made it to the end zone.

Houston will wrap up the season against the Titans, so they can play a spoiler for Tennessee’s chances of becoming the top seed in the conference if they can sweep up South Asia. That would likely require a better offensive effort and such production could slip through until next season.