The 49ers' 2003 Schedule

April 30, 2003 (NHS) -- It's that time of year again when Niner-haters across the globe collectively wonder if the upcoming 49ers' schedule is the easiest schedule in the history of professional sports, and the 2003 schedule is a contender for such consideration.

Statistically, the Niners' schedule ranks third-easiest in terms of overall winning percentage of teams faced (.451), but in reality, it is the easiest. Proof is found in the number of games against opponents that finished above .500. Only five such meaningful contests grace their 16-game schedule, tied for the least amount of any team. To put this ridiculous advantage into perspective, 29 of the 32 NFL teams have at least seven, or two more games against winning opponents (that translates to basically spotting every other team in the league one or two extra losses). To top it off, three of these five winning-opponent games are at San Francisco.

The only team that has a schedule that's arguably as easy is Arizona, but remember -- the Cardinals are a last place team, so they are supposed to have an easy schedule. The 49ers finished in "best ever first place" in the NFC West, yet once again they have the easiest schedule in football. Go figure. Compare the 49ers schedule to other winners like the Super Bowl participants Tampa Bay (.539 opp. win % and 10 games v. .500+ teams) and Oakland (.482, 11). Green Bay is the only other playoff team with a comparatively soft schedule, but even they play 7 winning teams.

This would be enough of an advantage on its own, but now consider that the ordering of the games once again works out for the 49ers' favor, too. Obviously sensitive to the head coaching change, the NFL purposefully removed any sort of initial adversity for Dennis Erickson and front-loaded the 49ers schedule with the dregs of the league.

The first six games feature two teams that bring among the worst records in football: Chicago (4-12) and Detroit (3-13) -- and to add insult to injury, these are at S.F. The only opponent faced in this opening stretch that finished with a winning record is also at home, of course. It's against Cleveland, who barely qualifies as a winning team at 9-7, and is already on record saying this will be a rebuilding year for them. The "tough" road games in the 49ers' early schedule are at Minnesota (6-10) and NFC Worst contender Seattle (7-9).

Gee, all that's missing to really make this opening schedule one for the ages is a home game against the Bengals.

Rounding out these first six "contests" is a road game at St. Louis (7-9) that could prove a little speed bump if the Rams ever decide they are going to be a legitimate team again. But bottom line is most college football teams would go at least 5-1 during this stretch, or maybe 4-2 if they were Division 1-AA.

Not a bad start to the season, so welcome to the Bandwagon, Mr. Erickson! Bill Parcells must be eating his heart out considering he's going to try to rebuild the Cowboys facing more than double the number of winning teams (11).

The rest of the 49ers' schedule fares little better in the adversity department. There is just one potentially hazardous stretch in the entire schedule that begins in November, when four of five games are on the road, including rare cold weather games against the Packers and Eagles. But the three opponents in the middle of this would-be difficult stretch are Baltimore (7-9), home against Arizona (5-11), and, of course, that long-overdue Bengals matchup. So even when the 49ers get slaughtered at Green Bay and Philly as they should, they basically get three bye weeks in between to lick their wounds. Must be nice when the most dangerous part of your schedule is a guaranteed 3-2 or 2-3 at worst.

Yes, the Bandwagon will once again have a season full of opportunities to forget reality and pretend the 49ers are an elite contender and cheer for overrated heroes like Terrell Owens padding stats against the meek.

Prime-time Lining?

It's not all bad news for us Niner-haters, though. While the 49ers will be slinging their usual brand of cheesy, boring wins against crappy teams week after week, at least there won't be many people outside of the Bay Area that will be watching.

In an utterly amazing development, the 49ers only have one Monday Night Football game (at home of course, a ho-hum matchup against Pittsburgh) and one Sunday night game (at patsy Seattle).

Sure, these are charity wins packaged for prime-time for the Bandwagon, but one can't help but be shocked that the 49ers didn't receive more gifts. Considering the 49ers finished first in the NFC Worst with a 10-6 record and the historical preferential treatment the NFL and media have accorded the 49ers since the 1980s, one can only conclude that only having two prime-time games is an intentional snub.

After all, take the 49ers television schedule last year. While it is acknowledged that the maximum number of prime-time appearances an NFL team can have is four in any given season, the 49ers amazingly weaseled five: three MNF games, a special Saturday game, and the unprecedented, first time in history Thursday night game to open the NFL regular season. (Of course, the Saturday game isn't considered "prime-time", thus the loophole.)

The 49ers also had the preseason opener (the American Bowl in Japan) and a MNF game in the preseason. All in all, there were five in the regular season and seven in all prime-times in 2002 that the 49ers were the only NFL game being broadcast to the entire nation -- and this doesn't even include all the times the 49ers were the FOX or CBS Sunday "game of the week".

So why the snub this year?

The easy answer is perhaps to make up for last year's breach of protocol in giving the 49ers too many prime-time games. That, of course, gives a benefit of the doubt to the NFL of innocence that we hesitate to accord. After all, as many irate Niner fans have penned, we are just a bunch of no-good Conspiracy Theorists.

Another guess is that last year, the 49ers failed to provide the ratings the NFL and the networks wanted. Overall the NFL enjoyed a resurgence in ratings except for one giant blemish -- the last MNF game of the year. The Rams pasted the 49ers in a meaningless game that ranked an all-time MNF low rating of 8.7% of TV homes. That lone horrid ratings performance took away from MNF's overall score for the year and ensured that MNF's 7-year ratings slide continued.

In giving the 49ers those seven prime-time slots, the NFL was betting on a huge Bandwagon to follow the 49ers last year, but it certainly didn't carry over to that last MNF game. Sure, a lot of that is because the 49ers just aren't a very good team, but that never stopped the Niner Bandwagon before. Maybe now that we're almost 10 years removed from the 49ers' last Super Bowl appearance, all those "49er faithful" have found bigger Bandwagons to hop. Perhaps more people are actually clueing into the fact that 49er football (a.k.a. "throw a 2-yard pass and hope someone falls down when trying to tackle Terrell Owens") is utterly boring. Or maybe it sickens them that the whole franchise is built around such a colossal punk like Owens.

There's a lot of guessing, but one thing is for sure: the Bandwagon media isn't providing any answers. They aren't even whining about the snub, which is really strange. The only comment made in the Bay Area press about the schedule was in reference to the S.F.-Detroit game, since it brings the media's beloved Mooch back to their beloved 'Frisco in what will certainly go down as The Worst Meaningless Game Surely to Erupt in a Media Circle Jerk.

Perhaps the media's failure to protest the lack of the 49ers in prime-time hints at the real reason: the NFL and the media don't like Dr. York's "new Niners", and the snub is punishment for the way the beloved DeBartolo-Walsh-Mariucci era has been unceremoniously squashed out of existence.

Whatever the reason, at least it's a small consolation for Niner-haters to remember while having to stomach yet another year of fluff masquerading as a 49ers' schedule and "best ever" overrated players.

Other contenders for the title of Easiest Schedule Ever:

2002, The Blatant Sham: 49ers get three of four first games at home, including a month in a row at home that includes the bye week before their only competition within the new and unimproved NFC Worst, the Rams. Schedule also includes an unprecedented five prime-time games, including the first-ever Thursday night season opener and last Monday Night game of the year.
2001, The Obvious Joke: 49ers lose to every team they play with a record better than .500. Unfortunately, only four such winning opponents are on the schedule, so 49ers go 12-4. 'Nuf said.
1997, It's The Schedule, Stupid: Mariucci discovers the joys of the Bandwagon as the rookie coach sets a franchise record 11 wins in a row (against 11 losing teams in a row, of course) before a winning team, the Chiefs, finally and thankfully blows them out, 44-9. Jerry learns he's not really "the Best Ever" since the team finished 13-3 without him, because fact is the easy schedule more than anything else dictates a 49ers' so-called "greatness".
Any season before 1995: NFL makes up for the NFC Worst having four teams by having 49ers play the last place teams from NFC Central and East, in addition to the two games per year against the last place team in the West (thus ensuring 25% of 49ers' schedule is against last-place teams).

Return home.

We welcome comments.