Seahawks-49ers just another game? Please!

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It’s Seahawks week.

Quick, someone tell the 49ers.

Three days before meeting Seattle for the first time since their devastating loss in the NFC Championship Game in January, many of the Niners were in it’s-just-another-week mode Monday.

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s tortured history against Seattle includes three fourth-quarter turnovers in last season’s 23-17 loss in the NFC title game and a 52.0 passer rating in four games (1-3 record).

So Kaepernick must be extra juiced to play Seattle on Thursday night, right?

“Just another game we need to win to get into the playoffs,” Kaepernick said.

The quarterback perhaps was taking his cue from head coach Jim Harbaugh, who acknowledged the 49ers were treating this like a playoff game … not that there was anything unusual about that.

“That’s how we’ve been approaching it each week,” he said.

Perhaps the first-year 49ers have been clued in by teammates about this bitter rivalry widely regarded as the NFL’s fiercest? Not safety Antoine Bethea, who spent his first eight seasons with the Colts: “Nobody’s been making too much of it,” he said. “It’s a big game for us. It’s our next game.”

Wide receiver Stevie Johnson, who spent his first six seasons with the Bills? He echoed Bethea and, oddly, looked perplexed when asked about the only game he played against Seattle in 2012.

Seattle Seahawks' Richard Sherman reaches out to shake hands with San Francisco 49ers' Michael Crabtree after Sherman tipped a pass in the end zone intended for Crabtree in the final minute of the second half of the NFC championship. less Seattle Seahawks' Richard Sherman reaches out to shake hands with San Francisco 49ers' Michael Crabtree after Sherman tipped a pass in the end zone intended for Crabtree in the final minute of the second half ... more Photo: Matt Slocum, Associated Press Photo: Matt Slocum, Associated Press Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Seahawks-49ers just another game? Please! 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

“I don’t remember anything,” Johnson said.

Of course, this is all, well, complete nonsense.

Johnson and Bethea know about this rivalry, and the holdovers from 2013 and beyond red-inked Thursday’s game on the calendar when the NFL schedule was released in April.

How painful was the NFC title-game loss? Linebacker Ahmad Brooks has said it sent him into an offseason spiral.

“You put so much into it and to lose a game like that?” Brooks said in August. “You see all the effort the coaches and your teammates put into it and to not close it out, yeah, it was kind of devastating. So I was like, 'I don’t care about football. I don’t want to think about it. I need to get away from this s— for a while.’”

Safety Eric Reid acknowledged one play — a 40-yard touchdown run by Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch — gnawed at him long after the final whistle.

“I took a bad angle and he scored a touchdown,” Reid said. “That play ate me alive in the offseason.”

The 49ers (7-4) will get their long-awaited chance to create more pleasant memories — and exact some measure of payback — when the defending Super Bowl champions visit Levi’s Stadium.

The Seahawks will enter on the heels of a 19-3 home win over NFC West-leading Arizona, but their bumpy 7-4 season has suggested they could extend a streak: No Super Bowl champion has advanced past the divisional round of the playoffs since the Patriots won their second straight title in the 2004 season.

On Sunday, All-Pro safety Earl Thomas said Seattle was solving the chemistry issues that have invaded its locker room.

“It’s a special win because we did it together,” he said. “And that’s what you love about this team: We can put our egos to the side, we can admit when we’re wrong. But we’ve got to stay true.”

The 49ers also have dealt with off-the-field issues, but have reeled off three straight wins against teams with a combined record of 10-23 — by an average margin of 4.3 points.

Now, the 49ers will face an opponent that Reid terms the most physical he played during his rookie season in 2013. The bright side? According to Harbaugh, those inelegant victories could pay dividends Thursday.

“You make a deposit in the toughness account,” he said, “and you’ll be able to make withdrawals from that later down the road. We want to keep making those deposits.”