Tag: 49ers schedule

Week 17 matchup between 49ers and Seahawks flexed to Sunday Night Football

The 49ers and Seahawks will play for all the marbles on Sunday Night Football in Week 17.

The 49ers and Seahawks will play for all the marbles on national TV in Week 17. Their game, originally slated for the normal 1:00 pm PST kickoff, was flexed to the primetime Sunday Night Football slot on NBC. It will be the final regular season game of the NFL season.

San Francisco’s Week 16 win over the Rams ensured a winner-take-all faceoff with Seattle for the NFC West crown the following week. If Seattle also wins in Week 16, the matchup will also decide the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

It’s the most logical choice for the Sunday night game since it’ll be the only game that will directly decide a division. It’ll also decide which team gets a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, and which team goes on the road on Wild Card Weekend.

The 49ers haven’t won in Seattle since the Week 16 of the 2011 season. The Seahawks won their first meeting in Santa Clara this year 27-24 in overtime back in Week 10.

If the rivalry wasn’t officially back, it will be Sunday night, and football fans across the country will get to experience it.

49ers finish toughest 3-game stretch in NFL history with 2 wins

The 49ers had one of the most brutal three-game stretches ever between Weeks 12 and 14. They passed the three tests with flying colors.

The 49ers had, by opponent record, the toughest three-game stretch in NFL history between Weeks 12 and 14. It was a set of games that was going to make or break San Francisco’s spot as a Super Bowl contender. They won two of the three thanks to a 48-46 come-from-behind victory Sunday against the Saints.

San Francisco’s schedule through 11 weeks wasn’t particularly impressive, although they were dominating much of it. Now there’s no more excuses for not putting the 49ers on the short list of Super Bowl contenders.

They trounced the Packers 37-8 at Levi’s Stadium. They hung around with the red-hot Ravens until a last-second, game-winning 49-yard field goal sealed the victory for Baltimore. Then Sunday they went to New Orleans and went blow for blow with the Saints and came out on top in the Superdome against the team that was supposed to be better.

Winning one of the three would’ve had the 49ers in position to take the NFC West and win the NFC’s No.1 seed. Instead, they won two and proved they can hang with any team, and win a close one on the road against an elite team.

If the 49ers hadn’t convinced people of their legitimacy prior to this three-game stretch, they’ve certainly done it with two wins in the most difficult three-game run in NFL history.

Schedule change: 49ers get 2 additional prime-time games vs. Packers, Rams

The 49ers got two additional prime-time games, starting with the Packers in Week 12, which is now on Sunday Night Football.

Add two more prime-time games to the 49ers’ schedule.

Their Week 12 home game against the Green Bay Packers has been flexed to Sunday night. Kickoff is now slated for 5:20 p.m. PT instead of the original 1:25 p.m. Seahawks at Eagles was the original Sunday night matchup.

The 49ers’ loss to the Seahawks put the 8-2 Packers only a half-game behind San Francisco for first place in the NFC standings.

San Francisco doesn’t have an easy Week 11 matchup. They’ll face the Arizona Cardinals, who pushed the 49ers to the brink in Week 9 before the 49ers eventually prevailed 28-25 in Arizona.

Green Bay is idle with a bye week.

That leaves two scenarios on the table for what’s now a huge Sunday night game. Either the 49ers and Packers are both 8-2 and jockeying for a first-round playoff bye, or the 49ers are a game up on the Packers with a chance to create separation.

The Week 16 showdown with the Rams at Levi’s Stadium, which did not have an official time, has been given a 5:15 p.m. PT start on Saturday, Dec. 21. That game will air on NFL Network.

That one could wind up determining the division winner depending on how the rest of the season shakes out. In their first matchup, the 49ers got the better of the Rams, 20-7, in Week 6 in Los Angeles.

This is quite a departure for the 49ers, who had their Sunday night game against the Rams last year flexed out in favor of a more competitive, meaningful matchup.

Prime-time kickoffs should only add to the electricity of two extremely big games for the 49ers in their push for a playoff spot.