5 games the 49ers must win in 2019 to make the playoffs
By Peter Panacy
The San Francisco 49ers have a fairly difficult NFL schedule in 2019, yet there are some must-win games standing out if Niners wish to make the playoffs this season.
Last year, the San Francisco 49ers arguably had a much easier NFL schedule than they do in 2019.
Case in point, the Niners had just one trip to the Eastern Time Zone, while this year features four such trips. And four of the final five games on the calendar are against teams which made the playoffs a season ago.
In case you were wondering, San Francisco’s 2019 regular-season schedule looks like this:
| Week | Day | Date | Opp | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun | September 8 | 4:25PM ET | @ | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | preview |
| 2 | Sun | September 15 | 1:00PM ET | @ | Cincinnati Bengals | preview |
| 3 | Sun | September 22 | 4:25PM ET | Pittsburgh Steelers | preview | |
| 4 | Bye Week | |||||
| 5 | Mon | October 7 | 8:15PM ET | Cleveland Browns | preview | |
| 6 | Sun | October 13 | 4:05PM ET | @ | Los Angeles Rams | preview |
| 7 | Sun | October 20 | 1:00PM ET | @ | Washington Redskins | preview |
| 8 | Sun | October 27 | 4:05PM ET | Carolina Panthers | preview | |
| 9 | Thu | October 31 | 8:20PM ET | @ | Arizona Cardinals | preview |
| 10 | Mon | November 11 | 8:15PM ET | Seattle Seahawks | preview | |
| 11 | Sun | November 17 | 4:05PM ET | Arizona Cardinals | preview | |
| 12 | Sun | November 24 | 4:25PM ET | Green Bay Packers | preview | |
| 13 | Sun | December 1 | 1:00PM ET | @ | Baltimore Ravens | preview |
| 14 | Sun | December 8 | 1:00PM ET | @ | New Orleans Saints | preview |
| 15 | Sun | December 15 | 4:25PM ET | Atlanta Falcons | preview | |
| 16 | Sun | December 22 | 1:00PM ET | Los Angeles Rams | preview | |
| 17 | Sun | December 29 | 4:25PM ET | @ | Seattle Seahawks | preview |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/24/2019.
An early bye week in the year does no favors either. Typically, most teams prefer it in the middle of the season or later. This gives a banged up squad an extra week of much-needed rest. If the playoffs are a factor, the extra week provides added time for preparation and scheming.
The 49ers won’t benefit from that, of course, which puts even more pressure on head coach Kyle Shanahan and Co. to win some additional games this season.
Especially if the playoffs are realistically in the picture.
Some games should be easy. The Arizona Cardinals, who beat the Niners twice last year, look to hold down the NFC West again this year amid a complete rebuild. Others are essentially tossups, while some San Francisco will have little business winning.
As such, let’s look at five games the 49ers must win this season if they hope to reach the postseason in 2019.