So why watch, or bet on, Saturday night's Bengals-49ers matchup in San Francisco, with Cincinnati an 8.5-point favorite on WagerWeb.com?
Well, it is the NFL, and there's no college football going on, would be the best answer I can give. Both the Bengals (5-8) and 49ers (3-10) qualify as huge underachievers this season.
Maybe you will tune in to watch 49ers quarterback Shaun Hill.
Thrust into a starting role because of season-ending injuries to starter Alex Smith and backup Trent Dilfer, Hill had spent nearly six seasons as an NFL quarterback without throwing a pass in a game before last week.
In fact, before last week, his NFL regular-season career consisted of two kneel downs for the Minnesota Vikings.
But in replacing Dilfer last week, against those same Vikings, Hill was solid in the 27-7 loss. He was 22- for-27 for 181 yards and a TD pass, although he also committed two turnovers, partly because he has trouble gripping the ball at times with a protective wrap on the injured index finger of his throwing hand.
"I would have thought I would play before my sixth year, but this is the way it played out, and I'm very excited for this opportunity. ... My goal has never been to be a third-string quarterback, so obviously this is an opportunity to use this as a stepping stone," Hill said.
He can't be any worse than what the 49ers have put under center already this season - San Francisco has the worst offense and worst passing game in the NFL.
And the 49ers have lost five straight games at home.
"I thought Shaun Hill gave us a spark in the second half coming in, did a nice job moving the ball down, we got a score," 49ers coach Mike Nolan said. "But again, we did turn the ball over I think three times since after he came in."
And Hill gets to face a Bengals pass defense that has yielded 24 touchdowns through the air to rank third-worst in the league. But San Francisco quarterbacks have thrown 17 interceptions, three returned for scores.
So you would think the Bengals have a huge quarterback advantage in this game with Carson Palmer.
But the former Heisman winner has had a down year.
Palmer has 21 touchdowns and 17 interceptions – one shy of his career high set as a rookie three years earlier. And Palmer's two-game drought without a touchdown pass is his longest since 2004."At this position and with where we are as a team, I need to play great every week, and I haven't been great every week," Palmer said. "As far as I'm concerned, I just want to give us a chance to win. ..
Of course, I want to throw a bunch of touchdown passes and throw the ball all over the field, but at this point in the year with where we're at, we need wins."
So maybe both teams will run the ball plenty.
49ers tailback Frank Gore has rushed 187 times for 781 yards and five touchdowns. But San Francisco is 29th in rush offense and last in scoring with a 13.2-points-a-game average. Gore has dealt with a bad ankle this season.
The Bengals have gone five straight games without allowing an opposing running back to gain 100 yards on them. They are allowing only 3.1 yards per carry in that stretch.
"They've had their ups and downs," Gore said of the Bengals' defense. "They've overrun a play or have a breakdown and that's when backs have had big gains.
That's the game of football. That's what the offense has been waiting on, to get that break to take advantage of."
Bengals running backs Rudi Johnson and backups Kenny Watson and DeDe Dorsey will go against a San Francisco defense allowing 3.8 yards a carry. Johnson and Dorsey combined for 173 rushing yards last week against St. Louis.
The lowdown: This is the Bengals' first visit to San Francisco since 1996. . The 49ers are 1-5 at Monster Park, while the Bengals are just 1-5 on the road this season and 4-9 away from home the past two seasons.
... The 49ers have committed 32 turnovers this season and are minus-13, second worst in the NFL. . .
If Cincinnati can win its final three games against the 49ers, Browns and Dolphins, it will have finished 8-8 for the fourth time in Coach Marvin Lewis' five years on the job. No coach in NFL history has gone 8-8 four times in a five-year span. . Bengals WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh now has an NFL-best 96 receptions on the year, and needs just five grabs to set the franchise single-season mark for catches.
Houshmandzadeh is also just 34 yards shy of his second consecutive 1,000-yard season. . The 49ers are tied for 16th against the pass. . So what to make of this game? Always hard to nail down what could happen in a meaningless game, especially with a QB in Hill who is an unknown. I say take the points and expect a Cincy victory by a touchdown.
Betting trends
The Bengals are 4-8 ATS.
The Bengals are 1-4 ATS away.
The Bengals are 3-4 ATS as the favorite.
The Bengals are 0-2 ATS as an away favorite.
The 49ers are 3-10 ATS.
The 49ers are 1-5 ATS at home.
The 49ers are 3-9 ATS as the underdog.
The 49ers are 1-4 ATS as a home underdog.
More NFL Trends
No comments:
Post a Comment