49ers' next 3 games will likely define the trajectory of the 2024 season

It feels like we talk about must-win games every week, but the next three games on the San Francisco 49ers' schedule might just be the biggest.

While none bar the Seattle Seahawks factor into the divisional tiebreaker (likely to be the Niners' easiest route to the playoffs), it's fair to say that they will probably tell us just where this red-and-gold team is headed this season, a real litmus test if you will.

Most reinforcements have now arrived (although there's still hope of linebacker Dre Greenlaw making a late entrance), and will have had a few games to get up to speed as well. Hopefully, the injury issues currently dogging starters like Nick Bosa, Trent Williams and George Kittle will pass too.

It couldn't be more vital, as the next three games might actually be the hardest on the 49ers remaining schedule.

3 games will ultimately define rest of 49ers' season

First up, it's today's always nerve-shredding battle with the division rival Seattle Seahawks. While the 49ers are heavily favoured to win this game, the games somehow never go quite as expected.

They follow that up with a road trip to Lambeau Field, and although Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers themselves aren't quite at the level they were last season when they took the Niners close in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, they're still a top-quality team playing with home field advantage. The fact that the 49ers have found it difficult to win there, snow playoff games and Colin Kaepernick masterclasses aside, gives more reason for pause.

Finally, the prime-time Sunday Night Football game on the road in Buffalo against the Bills is probably the most challenging game. While playing in freezing-cold Buffalo in December is bad enough, coming off two big games and playing against a quarterback like Josh Allen makes it even worse.

Not only is Allen clearly one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, but his running ability seems almost certain to give San Francisco fits. Other than the Philadelphia Eagles' Jalen Hurts last season, it's hard to pinpoint a time when the 49ers have been able to successfully shut down an athletic quarterback, having had nightmares against the likes of Kyler Murray, Lamar Jackson and, of course, Patrick Mahomes in the recent past.

All of which is to say that this end-of-November, early-December stretch might actually be the playoffs coming early for San Francisco. Each of these games feels like a playoff (and possibly in the case of the Bills, a Super Bowl) preview, and the team will almost certainly have to bring playoff intensity to get the results required.

Maybe that's the shot in the arm the team needs. The 49ers seem to be playing noticeably flatter this year, and until late in last week's Tampa Bay game, seemed devoid of some urgency. The Niners need to find some, because it doesn't particularly ease up after these games either. The team must also navigate tough games against the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams along with a possible division-deciding clash with the Arizona Cardinals.

However, before we can shred our nerves over that, results in these next three games really could really be decisive in how the rest of the season's approached.

Two or more wins sets the team up with some momentum down the stretch: Coming into those final five games at 8-4 or 7-5 will make things feel a whole lot like either 2021 or 2022 when the 49ers gained momentum for the late-season run and rode it all the way deep into the playoffs.

Losing two of three, however, likely puts the team in no man's land, and will require a big turnaround and some improbable results late in the season for this team to get where it wants, and feels it needs, to be.

Such is the difficulty the 49ers' organisation has given itself with its bumpy early-season run.

Buckle up, everyone. It's going to be one hell of a rollercoaster ride. But then, this is why we follow sports for the big moments like this.

Let's just hope the 49ers are up to it.

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