Barber: 49ers' schedule is about to get real

SANTA CLARA - Nick Bosa planting an imaginary flag in the Browns' dreams, Robert Saleh coming unglued on the sidelines, joyous players turning Washington's FedEx Field into a Slip 'N Slide for 300-pound adults - what a ride it has been for the 49ers in 2019.

And now it gets real.

The first six games of the season have taught us a lot about the 49ers. We didn't know if Jimmy Garoppolo could regain his confidence and efficiency after coming back from knee surgery. We didn't know if all that first-round talent on the defensive line would finally coalesce into something formidable, or if Richard Sherman was still a frontline cornerback at 31. Now we do.

But the next seven weeks will be just as instructive. We take it for granted that these 49ers are an improved team, almost certainly a playoff team. But that's a loose definition.

I'm not trying to discount what the Niners have done so far. Listening to local sports talk radio, a vice for which I should be scolded at all opportunities, a theme has emerged over the past few weeks. It goes like this: A team can only play the opponent the schedule puts in front of it. Therefore, it is unfair to criticize the 49ers for their early slate of games.

Which misses the point, because two things can be simultaneously true: The 49ers can be a legitimately good football team, and they can have played a soft schedule. The latter is not a criticism, it's a fact. And it's about to be rectified.

It would be an exaggeration to refer to Weeks 1-7 (including a bye week) as the 49ers' preseason. But it was definitely a tune-up for what lies ahead.

Consider that if you remove the 49ers' results to create a more accurate comparison, the cumulative record of their first six opponents - Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, the Rams and Washington - is 11-22. The 49ers' next seven foes, beginning this Sunday, are Carolina, Arizona (twice), Seattle, Green Bay, Baltimore and New Orleans. Their current cumulative record (counting the Cardinals twice) is 32-14-1.

Night and day. The 49ers set off on a nice paddle down a gentle stream, and are about to get sucked into Class IV rapids.

And the difference is more glaring than it appears at first glance, because those upcoming foes are on a cumulative roll. Over the past three weeks, they have a combined record of 19-1 - and the one loss was dealt by another team on the list, Baltimore having knocked off Seattle on Sunday.

The only upcoming opponent that doesn't feel like a playoff team is the Cardinals, and they at least look competitive behind rookie quarterback Kyler Murray.

Gone are the days of surviving five turnovers against the lackluster Steelers or winning in Washington after getting shut out for nearly the first 40 minutes of the game. To keep rolling in the weeks ahead, the 49ers will need to elevate their game.

“You have to regardless of who you're playing,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday, a day after his team's sloppy but rugged 9-0 win in D.C. “I mean, you get better or you get worse, you don't stay the same. As this year goes, it gets harder and harder, and we've got to make sure as it gets harder we have to get better if we want to meet our own expectations.”

Get better, especially, in a couple of key areas.

The most obvious is at wide receiver. I'm on the record as not- entirely-impressed with the 49ers' current batch of receivers (other than transcendent tight end George Kittle, of course). And the situation hasn't improved much since I first wrote about it a couple weeks ago. Sunday at Washington, the San Francisco wideouts combined to catch four passes - or what Jerry Rice used to affectionately refer to as “a quarter.” Dante Pettis was on the field for 59 snaps and didn't make a reception.

Ouch.

CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora reported Sunday that the 49ers are “aggressively pursuing multiple options at wide receiver” through the trade market. He mentioned Cincinnati's A.J. Green, Denver's Emmanuel Sanders, Atlanta's Mohamed Sanu, Chicago's Tyler Gabriel and Miami's Devante Parker. Any of them would present a huge upgrade in Santa Clara.

And while La Canfora doesn't have the cleanest track record on 49ers rumors, it makes every bit of sense for Shanahan and general manager John Lynch to kick the tires on anyone with 4.5 speed and a good set of hands.

The other unit that will be challenged considerably over the next seven weeks is the secondary. The 49ers defensive backfield has been outstanding thus far, one of the big surprises on the team. But things will get dicey pretty soon.

During their 6-0 start, the 49ers have taken advantage of quarterbacks like Mason Rudolph, who is still learning the position, and Baker Mayfield, who is wildly inconsistent, and Andy Dalton, who continues to be Andy Dalton.

The bar is about to be raised, and not just by the dynamic Murray. In Weeks 11 through 14, the 49ers will be tasked with defending, in succession, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson (watch his highlights at Seattle if you're not impressed) and, most likely, Drew Brees.

Make no mistake, the 49ers have a superb defense, coached by a brainy coordinator. I would expect their defensive line, which is deep and athletic, to thrive against almost anyone. I'm not as sold on the secondary. It has been more than adequate so far this season. But can young cornerbacks like Emmanuel Moseley, Akhello Witherspoon and K'Waun Williams hold their own against someone as accurate as Rodgers or Brees, or someone able to extend plays like Wilson or Jackson?

When Shanahan talks about trying to “meet our own expectations,” you have to wonder what those expectations are. It would be nuts to anticipate the 49ers going 7-0 between now and Dec. 8. But how about 5-2, or at least 4-3? Will they still be in first place in the NFC West by the time they face the struggling Falcons in Week 15?

The 49ers can't be held responsible for who has appeared on their schedule. Nor can the rest of us be held responsible for clinging to reasonable questions about them, or for wanting to figure out exactly how good Shanahan's team is. You think the first six weeks of the season were fun? Hang on for the whitewater.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.