49ers schedule: Players to get some time off between now and Monday Night Football

Thanks to the scheduling folks, the San Francisco 49ers are in a stretch of the season where they have one game over the course of approximately three weeks. They are off this Sunday, don't play in Week 8 until Monday Night Football, and then have their bye week. This gives the team some time to recuperate and get in gear for the second half of the season.

The 49ers released their media availability schedule and it includes several player days off. After a day-after debrief period on Friday, the players have today and Sunday off. They will have a practice on Monday, but then the players will get Tuesday and Wednesday off, before returning to practice on Thursday. Due to the Monday Night Football matchup in Week 8, the practice schedule operates Thursday to Saturday, instead of Wednesday to Friday.

The 49ers have been mostly a healthy bunch, but bumps and bruises can add up. Coach Harbaugh said as much in his Friday press conference:

"I think it's (the coming layoff) going to help our whole team. First, just getting rest. And just let the bodies come back. That was a tough, physical game on a very short amount of time to play it in. So, I think our whole team needs some rest. And before we start preparing for the Monday night game. I know our coaches do. And I really tip my hat to all of our coaches. After we played our game against the Giants, it wasn't but two or three hours after the game that every coach made it into the office and worked, in some guys' case, until 5 in the morning the next morning. Caught a couple hours sleep and did the exact same thing the next night. The players lounge was full of coaches for a couple hours, sleeping from 5 to 7 a.m. But, it was a great effort on their part."

Frank Gore bruised his ribs on Thursday, and while it seems like it wouldn't impact him by next week, a few days off should do good things for his battered body. Mario Manningham sat out TNF with a shoulder injury, but he is another guy who should be good to go with some time off this coming week. He said as much, telling the beat writers he would be good to go for Monday Night Football.