The second quarter of the NFL season begins on Thursday night with a divisional battle as the NFC West rivals San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals meet at Levi’s Stadium with both sides looking to pick up just a second win of the season and launch some sort of form to make a run for the playoffs with.
Whoever loses this match might have the long week to prepare for their next encounter but the postseason will look a long way off from a 1-4 start so both will be desperate to win this one.
San Francisco 49ers
The season started really well for Chip Kelly’s side with an emphatic win over the Los Angeles Rams in the opening week of the season but since then they have suffered three successive defeats with their defence leaking plenty of points and that isn’t good when their own offense is struggling both for star playmakers and for big plays.
One of the reasons why the 49ers are struggling is they have the worst run defence in the entire league and that is something that is going to have to improve if they are to get anything out of this match but home sides quite often have an advantage on the shorter weeks which could prove pivotal.
Arizona Cardinals
The Cardinals have had problems of their own hence why they are 1-3 for the season. That said two of their three defeats have been by four points or less while their win was an emphatic 40-7 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers which suggests when they get it right the Cardinals remain a handful for most sides in the league.
Arizona will have to do without their leading quarterback Carson Palmer for this one as a concussion has ruled him out. Drew Stanton will get the start in this match and it will be interesting to see how he can control the offense. He certainly isn’t short of weapons to go to work with.
Betting
With the news of the injury to Palmer by enthusiasm to back the Cardinals in this match has waned a bit I must admit. I’m not in the habit of backing the 49ers to do anything just yet though but I am going to try and take advantage of this banged up San Francisco defence in another way.
That is by backing the rushing yards of David Johnson. We were keen on the Cardinals’ running back from before the start of the season having taken him to lead the rushing yards stats this season and he currently sits on 300 yards from his four matches but he should take off here against a defence which is currently shipping an average of 140.5 rushing yards a game.
San Francisco have allowed running backs to go for 100+ yards in their last three matches and with Johnson being one of the better ones around and this 49ers defence even more bashed up with the absence of Navarro Bowman I’m expecting to see Johnson go in excess of 89.5 yards.
Tips
WON – Back D.Johnson – Over 89.5 rushing yards for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
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