The San Francisco 49ers’ season happens tomorrow! We’re still rounding out the schedule with how preseason, training camps, etc. have looked and how the 49ers are going to do later in the season. We’ve included a poll for the community to vote on whether they expect a win or a loss and will see what kind of prediction this provides at the end. Things will trickle into Week 1 and then we’ll see how accurate we are.

Week 1 @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Week 2 @ Cincinnati Bengals
Week 3 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
Week 5 vs. Cleveland Browns
Week 6 @ Los Angeles Rams
Week 7 @ Washington
Week 8 vs. Carolina Panthers
Week 9 @ Arizona Cardinals
Week 10 vs. Seattle Seahawks
Week 11 vs. Arizona Cardinals
Week 12 vs. Green Bay Packers
Week 13 @ Baltimore Ravens

So the Saints. I need to be rational on this one. The Saints were a missed PI call away from playing in the Super Bowl last year. This year, even with a few departures, they are on many analysts’ short lists to make it to the Super Bowl this year. You can read our opponent preview to see what else the Saints have been up to. The skinny is this: They still have a devastating offense and a solid defense. Until the weeks go on to prove us otherwise,

Reason for: 49ers secondary

I’m going to start this by saying I’m grasping at straws over this. But maybe, just maybe, Drew Brees can’t throw near as accurately as he once could. He’s opened himself up to some ugly picks in the past, maybe the same can happen here. I guess to go along with this (awful) narrative, he’s 40 years old and Father Time is unbeaten. Tom Brady might still be playing, but we saw Peyton Manning start to loose a bit of oomph when he hit 40.

So the 49ers secondary can feast on some ducks and the pressure up front from the defensive line?

Ugh. Let’s just get on with this.

Reason against: It’s against the Saints, and it’s in New Orleans

I said this before and I’ll say it again: if the 49ers beat the Saints, and the Saints are at near or full strength, the 49ers are legitimized. There’s less talking about a wild card and more talking about the deep playoff run. If the 49ers pull off a win in the Superdome, they are officially out of excuses as to why they can’t go for it all.

But it’s the Saints, it’s in the Superdome, and it’s at 10:00 AM. New Orleans is a different team at home and the fact this could be riding on their own divisional desires means the 49ers might get a loss in the final minutes. While I said Drew Brees could regress a bit, he’s shown no signs of doing so yet. Maybe he will as the season rolls on, but right now looking at this Saints team, being in New Orleans, they are simply a better team.

What I want to see is the 49ers hanging in there, going the distance. They have suffered too many blowouts against superior teams, if the Saints are superior at this point, then the 49ers could at least show they were in it until the final minutes rather than the game being over with at half.

Besides the away games with the Rams and the Seahawks, this is by far the toughest away game the 49ers will have on the schedule.

Let’s just get to the poll. That’s the whole reason we have this thing going into Week 1 of the regular season: