NFL: CARDS TO STAY PERFECT AT HOME?
The Arizona Cardinals try to move their home record to 4-0 straight-up and ATS when they host the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football.
This NFC West battle starts at 8:30 pm ET game on ESPN and it’s a great chance to see one of the most underrated teams in the league, Arizona. The Cardinals are 9 ½-point favorite, their biggest margin of the year, but that’s not stopping 90% of the public from backing them.
Arizona (5-3) has already beaten Miami, Buffalo and Dallas at home with the average margin of victory at 17 points. Note the Dallas game was with Tony Romo at quarterback, not the Brad Johnson version that would have trouble beating winless Detroit.
The Cards are also on a high heading into this game, after winning their first road game of the year, 34-13 at St. Louis. That increased their lead to three full games in the division and they’re out to show the national audience they’re a team to take seriously in the NFC race.
San Francisco (2-6) is coming off a bye-week and in their second game of the Mike Singletary era. Singletary caused quite a stir with his public tirade and reportedly dropping his pants in the locker room to prove a point. It seemed like Singletary was taking a page from his old coach Mike Ditka, but such volatility rarely works in the long term, and he will likely tone down the rhetoric.
The 49ers are on a five game losing streak straight-up and ATS. They have tried to shake-up the team by naming Shaun Hill as the starting quarterback and benching turnover prone J.T. O’Sullivan. Hill started two games last year and played a good amount in one other.
Hill had a very efficient quarterback rating of over 101 and threw five touchdowns versus just one pick. The game plan is likely to be ball control this week with a heavy use of running back Frank Gore. That wasn’t always the case under Coach Mike Nolan as they were just 30th in rushing attempts under him.
San Fran knows they can’t get into a shootout with this high scoring Arizona team. They need to use up some clock, not turn the ball over, and capitalize when they get in the red zone. If they do, they can stay within the spread and make their backers happy.
In addition to the game and Total wagering, we also have our Primetime Prop for this contest. If you back the correct scoring play in the “First Scoring Play” prop for this game and the scoring play is between 20 and 29 yards, your winning wager will be doubled up to $100.00 for this specific prop.
We also have plenty of props like whether Gore will rush for more than 75.5 yards. He’s only been under that Total three times this year, but twice in the last four games.
The Player to Score the 1st TD is also interesting with Cardinals touchdown machine Tim Hightower leading the way at 9:2. He has at least one touchdown in six of their eight games this year. Gore, Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald are all right behind Hightower at 5:1 each.
