You want to live in the moment. Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch would tell us, “We’re taking this season one game at a time.” But the San Francisco 49ers just had their bye week, and you can’t help but look ahead and play the “What if?” game.
The 49ers will be favored in each remaining game of the season. Yes, even against the potential No. 1-seeded Seattle Seahawks in Week 18 at Levi’s Stadium — as of today, anyway. Plenty can change from now until Week 18. In fact, it’s expected to. The seeding in the NFC
playoff picture will be more fluid than ever.
What we’re focusing on today is the 49ers’ ceiling. On Wednesday, Kyle Shanahan agreed with the sentiment that anybody can win it this season.
“Yeah, I do think a lot of teams have a chance to win it all. I think that’s pretty similar though to me most years. I mean, anytime you’ve got [Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick] Mahomes and things like that, and you’ve got the [Buffalo Bills QB] Josh Allens and stuff, they’re always the ones that you look at. But, there are a number of other teams, especially when you take guys like that out of the picture that are all capable. And when it’s the NFL, which is different than all sports, when it’s one game and not best of seven anybody’s capable of winning. Now, you’ve got to be good enough to get to the Playoffs. You’ve got to be good enough to win three, possibly four in a row, which those are the challenges. But, on any given Sunday it’s one game. That’s to me why football’s the best. It’s never about a seven-game series and usually when it’s one game any team can win. In a seven-game series, to me it’s always usually the best team.”
The Boogeyman in Kansas City could be eliminated as early as this Sunday. Green Bay travels to Denver, and the Rams host a Lions squad that can’t afford to slip up. There’s a possibility that the top two seeds can lose this week. Anything can happen in any week.
With that in mind, and applying the randomness of any given Sunday, how far do you believe the 49ers can go this season? Remember, barring an NFC West title, they’ll have to win every game on the road. Yes, the 49ers are 6-2 on the highway this season, but we’re talking about a different quality of opponent they’ll see in January.
