NFL schedule has 49ers, Raiders facing off in prime time

Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and a five-game winning streak have made the San Francisco 49ers, who had just one nationally televised game last year, a prime-time darling in 2018.

The 49ers will have five games in prime time this season, including a Thursday night game on Nov. 1 in Week 9 against the Raiders at Levi's Stadium.

The teams' most recent game was in Oakland in 2014, a 24-13 win for the Raiders. Their annual preseason contests were suspended following a 2011 game at Candlestick Park that erupted in fan violence.

The five prime-time contests are the most the 49ers have had since 2014, when they were coming off three consecutive seasons in which they made it to at least the conference championship game.

After playing the Raiders, the 49ers have 11 days off before a “Monday Night Football” game against the New York Giants at Levi's Stadium. San Francisco also will play a Monday game in Green Bay on Oct. 15.

The other two nationally televised games are Sunday night affairs against division opponents - Week 7 vs. the Los Angeles Rams and Week 13 at the Seattle Seahawks.

The 49ers will play four of their first six games on the road, beginning with a trip to play the Minnesota Vikings in their season opener on Sept. 9.

That means new running back Jerick McKinnon's first real outing with the 49ers will be against his former team.

The matchup also will feature a pair of high-priced quarterbacks in Garoppolo and Kirk Cousins, whom the 49ers and coach Kyle Shanahan would have pursued in free agency this year if they hadn't acquired Garoppolo in October.

The result of a road-heavy schedule early in the season is that the 49ers will be home for three consecutive weeks in December before their season finale against the Rams in Los Angeles.

The month of November also looks advantageous for San Francisco. The team has its bye on Nov. 18 and that 11-day break between the Raiders and Giants games.

A rough stretch starts at the end of the month, however, when the 49ers go on their longest trip, to Tampa, followed by a road game against the Seahawks. The 49ers and Seahawks will face each other twice in three weeks.

To better accommodate East Coast fans, prime time will start earlier this fall. Monday Night Football contests, which kicked off at 5:30 p.m. Pacfic time last season, will start at 5:15 p.m. this year.

Sunday night games begin at 5:20 p.m. - up from 5:30 p.m. - while Thursday games move from 5:25 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.

Last year the 49ers traveled 24,092 miles, the ninth most in the NFL. With only one game in the Eastern time zone this year - against Tampa Bay - the team will travel roughly 18,300 miles.

RAIDERS' OPPONENTS

You had to figure ESPN would want Jon Gruden to help kick off the season.

Gruden's first regular-season game in his return to the field as head coach will be a home date on Monday night, Sept. 10, against the Rams.

The game is one of four which will find the team on prime-time television - in addition to the Nov. 1 visit to the 49ers - with the Raiders hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Dec. 9 and the Denver Broncos on a Monday Christmas Eve.

In terms of strength of schedule, just four of Oakland's games will be against teams that made the playoffs in 2017.

Information from the Sacramento Bee and San Jose Mercury News was used in this report.