NFL Betting Preview: San Francisco 49ers at Washington Redskins

Monday Night Football features a pair of struggling quarterbacks as the San Francisco 49ers travel to FedEx Field to take on the Washington Redskins. The San Francisco 49ers were last year’s Super Bowl runners up but are looking up at a couple of teams at the moment with the Seattle Seahawks and surging Arizona Cardinals both above them. It’s not that the Niners have had a horrible year–they’re 6-4 SU/ATS–but they’ve lost two straight games and desperately look to get back on the winning track. The Redskins are a team going nowhere at the moment going 3-7 SU/ATS.

In the opening paragraph we talked about the ‘struggling quarterbacks’ storyline–Washington’s Robert Griffin III is coming off a nasty off season knee injury but the validity of that excuse is starting to wear off, at least for the impatient Redskins’ fans. There’s plenty of sentiment that Kirk Cousins should get a chance to start though for now head coach Mike Shanahan has dismissed calls to make a quarterback change and continues to support RG III. At least the Redskins have an option–the San Francisco 49ers aren’t in that good of shape at quarterback. Sophomore Colin Kaepernick has struggled this year and at least part of that is due to the Niners’ lack of depth at quarterback. Much of Kapernick’s success last season was due to his improvisational skills but with a major concern about keeping him healthy–Colt McCoy would be the next man up–Niners’ coaches are trying to make him more of a traditional pocket passer. He’s not comfortable in that role yet but does have the advantage of having a lot of talent around him and isn’t expected to do everything on his own. RG III doesn’t have that luxury.

The Niners are the vastly better team and are in desperate need of the win. As hesitant as we typically are to lay points on the road in the NFL there’s not much to suggest that the Redskins will be able to stop Frank Gore and the San Fran rushing attack. We’ll look for San Francisco to get back on the winning track with a win here. We’ll also look for the Niners’ defense to shut down the Washington offense producing an ‘UNDER’ result.

BET SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS -4′ OVER WASHINGTON REDSKINS
BET SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON UNDER 47′