There is still a lot of season left to play, so it is probably premature to panic after seven weeks of games. However, the San Francisco 49ers have now lost their second consecutive game, a downturn that feels pretty significant considering the team jumped to a 5-0 start.
The Minnesota Vikings are the latest team to humble the now 5-2 49ers, a team with Super Bowl aspirations. With this loss, San Francisco now trails two teams in the race for home-field advantage in the playoffs—the Philadelphia Eagles and the Detroit Lions.
Although the 49ers and Lions won't meet in the regular season, San Francisco has a pivotal clash with the Eagles in Week 13. They must turn things around quickly to avoid losing more ground to the Eagles.
Here's a glimpse at the current top six in the NFC standings after Week 7:
- Eagles, 6-1
- Lions, 5-2
- 49ers, 5-2
Since they both own identical conference records, the current tiebreaker between the Lions and 49ers is the strength of victory. The strength of victory is based on the combined record of all defeated teams on your schedule.
Detroit leads with a .469 percentage, surpassing San Francisco's .424. Even if the 49ers had secured a win against the Vikings, they would still be trailing the Eagles, who boast a strength of victory percentage of .463.
The 49ers will aim to snap their two-game losing streak on Sunday with a win over the Cincinnati Bengals at Levi's Stadium.
"We've got to make sure that we do everything from now all the way until Sunday, when that game's over, to find a way to beat the Bengals," head coach Kyle Shanahan said after Monday's loss. "And then we go into our bye week. ... We've got about five-and-a-half days left. Got to focus all on that and make sure we go in that bye week 6-2, not 5-3."