Sourdough Sam
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- Mar 20, 2019
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If you look at the San Francisco 49ers 2020 schedule, it's by no means a "cakewalk." San Francisco owns the fourth-toughest strength of schedule that includes NFC East and AFC East opponents, and the 2019 division-leading Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints, all while continuing their bi-yearly battles against NFC West rivals.
Of the 13 teams San Francisco will face off against in 2020, six made the playoffs last season. In addition to their host of tough matchups, their upcoming opponents posted a collective 134-120-2 record in 2019.
As the schedule was released on Thursday, San Francisco's slate of four-straight games against 2019 playoff contenders highlighted the 49ers daunting stretch of consecutive matchups. San Francisco is set to face the New England Patriots (12-4 2019 record), Seattle Seahawks (11-5), Packers (13-3) and Saints (13-3) between Weeks 7-10. Those four clubs accrued 49 regular season wins in 2019 to a mere 15 losses.
Kyle Shanahan appeared on NFL Network's Schedule Release '20 to give his initial reaction to San Francisco's slate of games. As daunting as the span may appear, the head coach won't get too caught up in the latter half of the year with the vast amount of unknowns that come with a typical NFL season.
"That's the obvious, that stretch right there," Shanahan said. "I used to do that a lot when I first got into the NFL. I would (look at the schedule like) 'All right, this team's real good. 'This team's not as good,' and you go through all that. And then you get into the season and you learn that half the stuff year-to-year flips.
"So if it's after Week 4, who knows what team you're going to have compared to Week 1 when injuries happen. I rarely, through experience, look at how many tough games you have in a row because it changes year-to-year."