49ers schedule: 3 biggest trap games San Francisco faces in 2022
With the 49ers schedule for the 2022 NFL season released, Niner Noise looks at some potential games on the fixture that could trip up San Francisco.
With the NFL schedule finally released, San Francisco 49ers fans can now sit back and count down the days until football returns to us.
While the rookie minicamp has given us a welcome respite from the lack of football, the main interest this week was the drop of the NFL schedule for the season.
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While we were already well aware of what teams the Niners would be playing, and the strength of schedule will be considerable as well, exactly what sort of teams San Francisco starts against (or finishes against) could be very important down the line.
This brings us to the first trap game of the upcoming 2022 season:
49ers trap game No. 1: Week 1 @ Chicago Bears, Sunday, Sept. 11 at 10 a.m. PT
The first games can be the ones that slip favorites up and put them on the back foot immediately, and the 49ers are one of the heavier favorites for Week 1 at the time of writing against a rebuilding Chicago Bears team.
The Niners will be pitting their second-year quarterback Trey Lance against Chicago’s own second-year quarterback, Justin Fields.
San Francisco starts firm favorites in part due to the Bears focusing on the secondary early in their 2022 NFL Draft haul, picking only one receiver for the entire class and only bolstering the poor offensive line.
When it comes to matchups, the 49ers should have the advantage.
But with Lance an unknown as the presumptive full-time starter, this could be a potential slipup game for the team, and it’ll be down to head coach Kyle Shanahan to make Lance as comfortable as possible.
The Niners should win, but don’t discount the idea of the Bears being a tougher opponent than people think for the kickoff game of the season.