The San Francisco 49ers are sitting at 6-4 heading into Week 11, as they prepare to take on the Arizona Cardinals on the road in a big game.
The 49ers are coming off an ugly 42-26 loss to the Los Angeles
Rams, where they took themselves out of it early by allowing three consecutive touchdown drives and having a costly fumble to start down 21-0.
Now at 6-4, San Francisco is 1.5 games back in the NFC West race behind both the Rams and the Seattle Seahawks. But, more importantly, they’re currently sitting on the outskirts of the playoff race as the No. 8 team in the NFC at the moment.
Currently, the Rams (7-2), Chicago Bears (6-3), and Green Bay Packers (5-3-1) occupy the wild-card spots in the NFC, with the 49ers a half-game back at 6-4.
San Francisco does hold that 3-1 record in the NFC with games against the Cardinals (this weekend) and Seahawks (Week 18) still to come, but that won’t matter if the teams ahead of them simply win more games to take the division.
That leads us to this upcoming stretch for San Francisco, which arguably is the most important stretch of their season.
The 49ers are currently at 6-4. Their next four opponents? The Cardinals (road), Carolina Panthers (home), Cleveland Browns (road), and Tennessee Titans (home), with a bye week sandwiched between the latter two opponents.
San Francisco must go 4-0 in this stretch to solidify their playoff spot. With four consecutive wins, the 49ers would be standing at 10-4 in not only a prime place for the division, but a likely playoff berth. They finish the season with matchups against the Indianapolis Colts (road), Chicago Bears (home), and Seattle Seahawks (home), which are all potential playoff teams.
Looking at other playoff contenders in the NFC, the Rams and Seahawks are both 7-2 with a high likelihood of making the postseason. The Packers, while being inconsistent this year, play the New York Giants before a tough stretch to end the year (Minnesota (2x), Detroit, Chicago (2x), Denver, Baltimore). The Bears also have a tough set of games (Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Green Bay (2x), Cleveland, San Francisco, Detroit).
So, there’s definitely an opportunity to make the playoffs, as it seems unlikely that both the Bears and the Packers will win 10 games this season, especially given their head-to-head matchups. That’s why 10 games is the barometer for the 49ers, with their next four matchups easily being their most winnable.
The fourth-place schedule was why the 49ers were projected to make the playoffs in the first place, despite so much roster turnover. With an injury-ravaged roster, San Francisco still has a great chance to be in the playoffs, with FanDuel having them as -355 favorites to be a postseason team.
But, the best path for that is to win the next four games, where the 49ers can be sitting at 10-4 going into three tough matchups to end the year. Even if San Francisco loses a home matchup to the Bears, their 10 wins could trump what Chicago ends with, potentially eliminating a head-to-head tiebreaker for a playoff spot.
That four-game stretch begins with arguably the toughest matchup of them all this weekend: the Arizona Cardinals.
The 49ers are three-point road favorites currently and should be getting reinforcements with Brock Purdy and Ricky Pearsall both trending to return. But, it’s as close to a must-win at this point of the season for San Francisco.
