The 49ers and Bengals faced off twice in Super Bowls during the 1980s. Their Week 2 matchup in 2019 doesn’t carry quite the same weight. With both teams teetering on the line between mediocre and playoff-contender after the first week, the 10:00 AM Pacific Time kickoff is mostly relegated to local markets on the FOX broadcast map.
Here’s the map via 506 Sports:
The 49ers-Bengals game is showing in the green portions of the map. Cardinals-Ravens, the orange area, is also getting a pretty small section of the map. Neither the Cardinals, nor 49ers, nor Bengals were impressive in the first week.
Larger chunks of the map belong to the Steelers-Seahawks showdown. That’s the purple area. Yellow belongs to Packers-Vikings, and red is Cowboys-Washington.
San Francisco has a real chance to put themselves a little further into the national picture if they can snag a win in Cincinnati. Beating the Bengals means the 49ers would be 2-0 heading home to face the Steelers in Week 3. If Pittsburgh wins against Seattle, their game in Santa Clara suddenly carries quite a bit of weight with two of the league’s premier franchises facing off and looking to get a leg up on the playoff hunt early.
