SANTA CLARA — Right here is your helpful information to watching this 49ers’ season: put together to remain up late, spend your holidays in red-and-gold apparel, and anticipate NFC West drama right down to the wire.
Thursday introduced forth their regular-season itinerary. Closing vacation spot: Tremendous Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, the place the 49ers hope to win their first Lombardi Trophy in 29 years.
Return 30 years and a few novelties mirror this 12 months’s schedule. As was the case in 1993, the 49ers will open in Pittsburgh, and so they later will play host on Christmas, this time to the Baltimore Ravens within the 49ers’ fifth scheduled prime-time kickoff of the season.
Listed here are 5 fast issues to know concerning the schedule:
1. HOLIDAY PLANS: The 49ers play on each Thanksgiving and Christmas for the primary time in a season, plus they’ll play on New 12 months’s Eve. Hey, however they’re free on Halloween (as a result of there is no such thing as a Tuesday Night time Soccer, but).
On Thanksgiving evening (Nov. 23), the 49ers go to the Seattle Seahawks. It’s an opportunity for the 49ers to select up from final season’s 3-0 sweep of their division rival, however, after all, to avenge an notorious 2014 Thanksgiving house loss to them. That defeat (and the Seahawks’ postgame turkey dinner on the sector) triggered a four-game shedding streak for the 49ers in an 8-8 season to snap a three-year playoff run.
On Christmas, the Ravens come to city, 30 years after the NFC West-champion 49ers misplaced 10-7 to the Houston Oilers at Candlestick Park, within the penultimate recreation of the common season. On New 12 months’s Eve, the 49ers go to the Washington Commanders in a ten a.m. PT kickoff, so tempo yourselves with these libations.
2. FIVE IN PRIME TIME
The NFL adjusted its Thursday evening programming in order that some groups might need to play two such taxing video games. The 49ers drew that card, with a Sept. 21 house opener towards the New York Giants earlier than that Thanksgiving evening go to to Seattle.
Different prime-time kickoffs: Sunday, Oct. 8 at house towards the Dallas Cowboys; Monday, Oct. 23 on the Minnesota Vikings; and, the Christmas evening go to by the Ravens.
The 49ers are 10-13 in prime-time video games in Shanahan’s six seasons, together with a 4-2 mark of their 2019 run to the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed. Final season’s staff went 4-1 in prime time, after 1-3 efforts every of the earlier two seasons; a December 2020 recreation at Dallas was flexed out of prime time.
3. SLOW STARTERS?
Solely two of the primary eight video games are towards NFC West opponents for the defending division champs, which may assist in the event that they, you realize, once more begin slowly. The 49ers have misplaced 4 of their first eight video games in every of Kyle Shanahan’s seasons since 2017, apart from an 8-0 begin in 2019.
The 49ers are 2-2 in season openers at Pittsburgh, the final being a 1993 win. Their final go to was the 2015 street opener in Week 2, a 43-18 loss below then-coach Jim Tomsula.
It’s not the way you begin however the way you end, proper? Final season’s staff overcame a 3-4 begin, received 10 straight en path to the NFC West title, then posted two playoffs wins earlier than shedding a second straight NFC title recreation.
4 of the ultimate seven this season are towards division foes, culminating at house towards the Rams, on both Saturday, Jan. 6, or Sunday, Jan. 7.
4. ROAD-TRIP OUTLOOK
The 49ers have three spurts of back-to-back street video games. That doesn't essentially imply they should have a stayover between any of them, as they’ve completed at The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia every of the previous three seasons between East Coast street video games.
In the event that they do go for the prolonged street journey, it seemingly would are available in mid-October, once they observe an Oct. 15 go to to the Cleveland Browns with an Oct. 23 recreation on the Minnesota Vikings. Nonetheless, that latter recreation is on a Monday evening, which means an additional evening on the street (or an additional day to get again to California to organize between video games).
The opposite back-to-backs: The opener at Pittsburgh is adopted by a go to to the Rams; the Thanksgiving affair at Seattle grants them additional time to organize for the NFC Championship Sport rematch in Philadelphia (Dec. 3).
5. BYE WEEK REDUX
Week 9 — the primary weekend of November — delivers the 49ers’ bye for a second straight season. It permits them time to relaxation up for a cross-country journey to Jacksonville on Nov. 12 — the primary of 4 street journeys in a 36-day span.
Ideally, the 49ers need the NFC’s bye for the wild-card playoffs. They averted that spherical en route to every of their seven Tremendous Bowl appearances.
THE SCHEDULE (Kickoff instances PT)
Sunday, Sept. 10: at Pittsburgh Steelers, 10 a.m., FOX
Sunday, Sept. 17: at Los Angeles Rams, 1:05 p.m., FOX
Thursday, Sept. 21: vs. New York Giants, 5:15 p.m. Prime Video
Sunday, Oct. 1: vs. Arizona Cardinals, 1:25 p.m., FOX
Sunday, Oct. 8: vs. Dallas Cowboys, 5:20 p.m., NBC
Sunday, Oct. 15: at Cleveland Browns, 10 a.m., FOX
Monday, Oct. 23: at Minnesota Vikings, 5:15 p.m., ESPN
Sunday, Oct. 29: vs. Cincinnati Bengals, 1:25 p.m., CBS
Week 9 (Nov. 2-6): Bye
Sunday, Nov. 12: at Jacksonville Jaguars, 10 a.m., FOX
Sunday, Nov. 19: vs. Tampa Bay Bucs, 1:05 p.m., FOX
Thursday, Nov. 23: at Seattle Seahawks, 5:20 p.m., NBC
Sunday, Dec. 3: at Philadelphia Eagles, 1:25 p.m., FOX
Sunday, Dec. 10: vs. Seahawks, 1:05 p.m., FOX
Sunday, Dec. 17: at Cardinals, 1:05 p.m., CBS
Monday, Dec. 25: vs. Baltimore Ravens, 5:15 p.m., ABC
Sunday, Dec. 31: at Washington Commanders, 10 a.m., FOX
Saturday/Sunday Jan. 6/7: vs. Rams, time TBD