Do San Francisco 49ers face must win vs Eagles?

Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Do the San Francisco 49ers face must win vs Eagles, or is their schedule enough fluff to keep them afloat regardless? Dan Salem and Todd Salem debate in part two of this week’s TD Sports Debate. Two brothers from New York yell, scream and debate the NFL and sports.

[Part one – Are the Bengals the best in the NFL?]

DAN:

Week four marks the quarter point of the season, putting many teams with playoff aspirations in must win situations. But the only team that truly MUST win is the San Francisco 49ers. They are tied for last in their division, on a two game losing streak, facing the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles. A loss would unleash hell upon the Bay area.

This game looms large for many reasons, not least of which is a potential three game losing streak for San Francisco. Has that EVER happened with Jim Harbaugh as coach? I don’t think so.

The 49ers are playing at home. The 49ers are facing a playoff caliber team in the Eagles. The 49ers entered the season as a prominent pick for the playoffs themselves, having narrowly missed the Super Bowl last season. The 49ers are expected to be good. All of this adds up to must win.

Now maybe you’ll try to tell me that San Francisco’s upcoming games are all winnable, so a 1-3 start does not spell season ending catastrophe. But looking a bit further, past the meaty goodness of the 49ers schedule to their final five games, one finds an awful big hill to climb when playing from behind.

If the 49ers continue to lose and if they continue to need end of season victories to be in the playoff picture, then those final five weeks will doom them. Seattle, Oakland, Seattle, San Diego, and Arizona is an awful gauntlet based upon the current season’s body of work. I’d call the Oakland game easy, yet this is San Francisco’s cross town rival. The Black Hole. It won’t be easy.

I say this is one of the biggest must win games in recent memory, outside of an actual must win situation that knocks a team from the playoffs or something. Can San Francisco survive another loss? Will the team stand behind Jim Harbaugh if they can’t start notching victories on their belt? And what about Colin Kaepernick? I’m already hearing whispers of men questioning his abilities after two losses. Three in a row? Oh boy.

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TODD:

A number of factors come up when determining whether a game is must-win. The first and most obvious is to ignore the fact that any game in week four is clearly not a must-win. No one can be eliminated from playoff contention right here. After suspending our disbelief, what else must be determined is as follows:

1) Is this team actually good enough to warrant worrying about must-wins? For example, Oakland definitely needs a win more than San Fran because it’s winless with two of the best teams in football in its division. But Oakland isn’t going anywhere. Is San Francisco?

Before the season, we both legitimately questioned whether the 49ers would be in for a free fall. There were the rumors about Jim Harbaugh leaving for another job, the questions about Colin Kaepernick’s leadership acumen, the decimation of the defense both because of suspension and injury, and the worry about the skill players on offense.

Well, through three games, are any of those worries resolved? I say they’re all worse! Articles on sites like GRANTLAND.com are coming out about Harbaugh possibly leaving again, Kaepernick looks worse than anyone could have expected, the defense is in shambles compared to the past few seasons (although still not terrible), and the offense’s two most explosive players are Carlos Hyde (only 14 carries on the season stuck behind Gore) and Vernon Davis (already missed one game because of injury).

Let’s call number one TBD because if I say the team isn’t good enough, there’d be no reason to continue with this thread.

2) Is the team’s schedule worrisome? You pointed out how I would claim the next few games are all winnable. You are correct because they are. You also pointed out the finish to San Francisco’s season. Let’s call this a wash.

3) Are the team’s divisional opponents threats? Seattle of course is a threat; Arizona I am not on board for yet though. Just based off that Giants game, Arizona seems shaky. New York gave that game away even though the Cardinals couldn’t do much on offense. The win over the 49ers was impressive, but, and this is going to be awkward, cyclical reasoning, if we’re here questioning San Fran’s validity, I don’t know how much stock we can put into that win.

In the end, the schedule isn’t terrible and neither is the division. This game against Philadelphia is NOT a must-win and here’s why. If this team is good enough to worry about must-wins, they can come back from a 1-3 start once their defensive players return. If this team is not good enough then this game doesn’t matter anyway!

[If you missed Part one – Are Bengals best in the NFL?]