The NFL heads to Mexico for the Monday Night Football this week as the Arizona Cardinals go international with a home game when they face off against their NFC West rivals San Francisco 49ers in a key game for both.
These two teams will know this is the bye week for the division leaders Seattle Seahawks and so both have the chance to close the gap on them at the top, or in the case of San Francisco overtake them with a victory.
Arizona Cardinals
There was a lot expected of the Arizona Cardinals this season when you consider that it is their home stadium which will host the Super Bowl at the end of it. With the last two Super Bowl winnings landing the Vince Lombardi Trophy on home soil, all eyes were on the Cardinals to see if they can complete a hat trick of home teams. If they are going to do that then with a 4-6 record going into this match they are going to need to get their winning boots on.
One issue that the Cardinals have going into this match is that it looks like star quarterback Kyler Murray is going to miss out with the hamstring injury that kept him out of last week. Colt McCoy went pretty well in the win over the Los Angeles Rams last week but you fancy that they will need to raise their game if they are going to win this one. The positive to take last week was that their defence stepped up both against the run and getting to the quarterback. That will be key here.
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San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers head to Mexico with the incentive that a win will send them top of the NFC West. There are no guarantees that more than one team will come out of the West this season so hitting the front with a third of the campaign to go could very well be significant. The 49ers go into the match off the back of successive wins over the two Los Angeles sides and although you can question what they beat, they are beginning to look ominously good.
Players are coming back for the San Francisco 49ers which is making them a lot more dangerous. Jimmy Garoppolo has almost a full offense to go into battle with and the defence is starting to get healthy as well. The interesting thing here will be how the 49ers go about keeping this elite set of Cardinals receivers quiet. If they can do that then you would imagine they will be well on their way to winning the match.
Betting
I like the over here. I’m a little surprised the line is as low as 42.5 because we have to remember we are at altitude and so if a defence is on the field longer than usual then it is going to gas a lot quicker so the points should come more freely. The other reason why I like the over here is because I always think that the international series games are to showcase the sport around the world so big plays and trick plays are encouraged which lead to points being scored quicker.
San Francisco have a strong offense and they go up against an Arizona defence which is a little bashed up so you would imagine the 49ers would have scored fairly freely in this match anyway but even more so in these conditions. We saw last week that just because Kyler Murray isn’t under center doesn’t mean that Arizona can’t contribute offensively but were San Francisco to close in on the 30 point mark here it wouldn’t take much for Arizona to bring the over in.
Tips
Back Over 42.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
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