Golden Nuggets: Tough road in the next 6 weeks

Wednesday, November 20th, 2019 edition of the Golden Nuggets, a daily compilation of San Francisco 49ers links from the Internet

By Billy Kerr@bkerr725 Nov 20, 2019, 2:00am PST

NFL: Arizona Cardinals at San Francisco 49ers

Bouncing back from their 1st loss of the season was important for the 49ers and they did just that against Arizona. They swept the Cardinals this season and they now head into the hardest part of their schedule. In the next 3 weeks, they face the Green Bay Packers, Baltimore Ravens, and New Orleans Saints. Each of these teams lead their divisions. After that stretch, the 49ers face a resurgent Atlanta Falcons before closing their season against division rival Rams and Seahawks. That Seahawks game could very well determine who wins the division title and who ends up the wild card team.

The 49ers defense will be tested these next 3 weeks going against some of the best quarterbacks the league has to offer. Aaron Rodgers always has a little extra motivation to play the team that passed up on him in the draft. He is joined by a very good running back in Aaron Jones, who has 11 touchdowns this season and a defense that is top 10 in interceptions. The Ravens are led by Lamar Jackson, who is probably Russell Wilson’s top competitor for the MVP and has been must watch TV since the season started. The Saints will get the 49ers at home after the Baltimore road game and playing on the road in New Orleans is always a tough task when you’re going up against Drew Brees.

In order for the 49ers to finish the season strong, Jimmy Garoppolo is going to need to protect the football. He continues to throw a few head scratching passes every game that get picked off and on Sunday that almost resulted in a 2nd consecutive 49ers loss. Luckily, the interceptions haven’t hurt the team in the win column, but against really good teams that can be the difference. These next 3 defenses are Jimmy’s biggest tests. The 49ers would like to keep their #1 spot so they can have home-field advantage and the Packers, Saints, and Seahawks would like nothing more than to bump them off.

49ers links

49ers defense is still trying to figure out Kyler Murray (Smith)

Seahawks are the biggest NFC threat (ESPN)

Garoppolo’s readiness for playoffs (Inman)

1st winning season in 6 years (Madson)

Jimmy and Deebo earn Player of the Week nominations (Martin)

Kentavius Street and Jason Verrett able to come back from IR (Maiocco)

The LaFleur brothers having a reunion on Sunday night (Maiocco)

49ers rankings (Asher)

John York speaks about a 17 game regular season and 3 preseason game schedule (Smith)

Looking at the game-ending defensive touchdown (Hutchinson)

Film breakdown (Cohn)