49ers schedule: Predicting record vs. NFC West in 2022

Week 18: 49ers vs. Cardinals

While this season’s Week 18 matchup carries hardly any the weight of the same week’s showdown between San Francisco and Los Angeles a year ago, it still might be a crucial game.

Hopefully, the 49ers have locked up a playoff berth by this point and are only jockeying for better home-field advantage and seeding within the NFC playoff picture. And if there’s a chance to further thwart Arizona’s own playoff hopes, one better believe that Trey Lance, Kyle Shanahan and Co. are going to take full advantage of it.

There are a few reasons why the Niners come out swinging in this one and engineer a decisive victory.

For starters, let’s go ahead and predict Trey Lance has long since found his groove by this point in the year. That’d be a big plus.

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On top of that, the Cardinals will be traveling back from an East Coast road trip to visit the Atlanta Falcons in Week 17. While the Falcons aren’t exactly predicting a playoff-caliber finish this year, road trips that far stink.

And for the icing on the cake? Just take into account Arizona head coach Kliff Kingsbury’s late-season collapses the last two years. Is anyone out there convinced things will be notably different in 2022?

Didn’t think so.

Look for San Francisco to turn this regular-season finale into a laugher, ultimately finishing 4-2 within the NFC West and reversing last year’s record.