49ers’ Week 16 game will be played on Saturday, December 26 against the Cardinals

The San Francisco 49ers are expected to practice and play their next two home games at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, as Santa Clara County has forced the team to find a new home for the first couple of weeks in December. On Monday morning, the NFL announced that the Niners Week 16 game against the Arizona Cardinals would be played on Saturday, December 26 49ers’ Week 16 game will be played on Saturday, December 26 against the Cardinals as part of a tripleheader. The game can be viewed on local broadcasts, including on NBC Bay Area TV, Amazon, and Twitch.

With the 49ers winning on Sunday combined with losses by Arizona and Tampa Bay, the 49ers are a game out of the final NFC playoff spot. The Vikings and Bears are both 5-6, but neither of those teams seems to be any good. The Cardinals are a good team, but like the 49ers, they shoot themselves in the foot weekly and find ways to lose games. Unlike the 49ers, Kliff Kingsbury makes a brutal in-game decision that costs Arizona every week.

If your goal is to catch Arizona, They play the Rams at home next week, a sneaky Giants team who gave the Rams all they could handle earlier in the year, then the Eagles, before finishing the season against the 49ers and Rams again. Arizona could easily finish that schedule 2-3. The Rams are a better team than Arizona; they’re just not a good matchup for San Francisco. That finish would make Arizona 8-8, if so.

Each 49er win gives them a little breathing room, but the team cannot afford to slip up. Beating the Bills would go a long way in making the playoffs as San Francisco’s next two opponents are Washington and Dallas, where the 49ers may have more reinforcements back. Win against Buffalo, and let everything else fall in place.