NFL Football Betting: Houston Texans at San Francisco 49ers

Week 1 of Preseason NFL Football ends on Sunday night with the only game on the board as the San Francisco 49ers host the Houston Texans. The Texans are coming off a surprisingly good season under head coach Bill O’Brien. Actually, it’s been back to back surprisingly good seasons. Houston obviously had talent but there was a perception that the team was a dumpster fire when Gary Kubiak was fired. Bill O’Brien came in and delivered back to back 9-7 seasons. Last season, the team won the (admittedly weak) AFC South and made the playoffs losing to Kansas City in the wild card game. O’Brien is no stranger to ‘damage control’–bringing the Penn State football program back from the dead in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky fiasco. Everyone expected Penn State to fall off the map but instead O’Brien had the team playing competitive football almost immediately. No matter how bad things were in Houston it’s unlikely that he’ll ever again face a situation as dire as what he faced at Penn State.

Houston is expecting to be solid again this year but the more interesting melodrama will unfold in San Francisco. The last few years in San Francisco have been downright bizarre. In the span of 5 years the Niners went from 13-3 in Jim Harbaugh’s first year to 5-11 under Jim Tomsula last year. It’s obvious that there’s more to the Harbaugh story than meets the eye–Harbaugh was fired (or ‘mutually agreed to end his contract’) after an 8-8 season but had a four year record of 49-22-1 in San Francisco with three NFL title game appearances and one Super Bowl appearance. Jim Tomsula was kicked upstairs for the second time in his career but fired just a few days before the Niners’ hired Chip Kelly.

So we’ve got a new coach in his first home game. If anyone understands the fickle nature of NFL coaching it’s Kelly and with a very lively quarterback battle going on for both the starting job and the #3 job there should be plenty of emphasis on offense. The Texans really don’t care much about preparing for the Niners or the outcome of this game. They’ve got ‘bigger fish to fry’ and will let Kelly’s offense put on a show. This game can be found at -3 and -3′ so make sure to get the 3.

BET SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS -3 OVER HOUSTON TEXANS