NFL Football Betting: San Francisco 49ers at Buffalo Bills
Great week for Canadian sports fans. NHL season got underway on Wednesday night with a full slate of games set for Thursday. The Toronto Blue Jays have reversed their late season slump and ran roughshod over the Texas Rangers to advance to the American League Championship series. NFL season has become something of an afterthought but ‘Canada’s NFL team’ the Buffalo Bills is in action this weekend and have been playing well of late winning three straight games. They’ll host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday and they’re heading in the opposite direction having lost four straight games since beating the Los Angeles Rams in their season opener.
The Niners are making a change in starting quarterback this week and will turn to Colin Kapernick. It probably won’t make a difference as the team is a mess. They’ve got plenty of problems of their own and must also deal with an underrated Bills’ defense. Hirsute defensive coordinator Rob Ryan is much maligned but he’s got a lot to do with the Bills’ #5 ranking in PPG against giving up just 17.4 per contest–and tied with the Denver Broncos who were the best defense in the league last year. Tyrod Taylor is improving by the week and now has a revitalized Lesean McCoy to make things easier for him. San Francisco didn’t have a great defense to begin with and have been hit hard by injuries. They’ll be missing several of their top run defenders including NaVorro Bowman, Glenn Dorsey and DeForest Buckner.
We’d rather be taking points with Buffalo instead of laying them though at this point the Niners are just unbettable. They’re on a 3-8 ATS run against opponents with winning records, a 14-23 ATS run overall during the last three years, a 5-10 ATS run as a 3.5 to 9.5 point dog, a 9-15 ATS run as a dog overall, and a 6-12 ATS run on the road. They’ve also gone 2-6 SU/ATS in their last 8 non-conference games. The Bills have a pair of divisional games on deck (at Miami and home against New England) followed by a tough non-conference game at Seattle so in theory this could be a ‘flat spot’ but against the lowly Niners it might not matter.
BET BUFFALO BILLS -7.5 OVER SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS
