Thursday, May 17th, 2012
The Detroit Lions will make the long trip out to the west coast to face the San Francisco 49ers in an NFL football game on Sunday afternoon. Kick off time in San Francisco is scheduled for 4PM Eastern Time with regional television coverage provided by Fox.
The LVSC NFL odds makers have opened the point spread in this game and the San Francisco 49ers were opened as an 11 point favorite with the over under coming in at 42.
The early money from the NFL betting public has come in on the home favorite, as the San Francisco 49ers are currently a 12-½ point favorite. The total has seen early movement in the betting towards the under, as the over under is currently lined at 41 for the NFL bettors to play into.
NFL money line gamblers can make a play on the favored San Francisco 49ers at –700 with the road underdog Detroit Lions returning +550 to win without the aid of getting the points.
The San Francisco 49ers sit with a record of 6-8 on the season and have been eliminated from the playoffs. With the Arizona Cardinals victory last week against the Detroit Lions coupled by the 49ers loss at Philadelphia, it eliminated the 49ers from post season competition for the 7th consecutive season. Steve Mariucci was the last coach to lead the 49ers to the playoffs in his final year coaching the team in the 2002 season. All the 49ers have to play for is an 8-8 season, which would only be a 1 game improvement from the 2008 season. Detroit is going through another bad season with a mark of 2-12 on the year.
San Francisco enters their final home game of the season after a poor showing at Philadelphia last week. In an important game for the clubs playoff chances the 49ers spit out the bit at Philadelphia losing 27-13 and committing 4 turnovers. It was another bad game for starting quarterback Alex Smith last week. Smith hit on only 20 of 37 passing for 177 yards a touchdown and three interceptions. The sad part about Smith’s performance is that talented receivers and a good running back in Frank Gore surround him. Smith was poor in the teams win over Arizona, as despite being aided by 7 Cardinals turnovers he could only produce 24 points. He has thrown 5 picks in his past two games. Running back Frank Gore had a good game last week rushing for 107 yards on only 16 carries for 6.7 yards a carry average. He was pretty good against the Cardinals two weeks ago with 167 yards. Defensively the 49ers allow 19 points per game. They have had problems defending the pass allowing 248 yards a game ranking 28th in the NFL. The team allowed Philadelphia over 300 yards passing last week.
The Detroit Lions enter their final road game with a 4 game losing streak. They are coming off a 31-24 loss to the Arizona Cardinals last week. To their credit the Lions never gave up in the game overcoming a 17-0 third quarter deficit to tie the game. The Cardinals needed a touchdown in the final minutes of the game to break a 24-24 tie to earn the 7-point victory. The Lions have not been good on the road this season averaging 14 points per game and allowing over 35 points and 426 yards to their opponents. They have lost every road game by 10 points or more. With injuries to Matthew Stafford and second string Daunte Culpepper ineffective it will be third string Drew Stanton getting the start. The third year pro in relief effort last week hit on 10 of 19 for 72 yards no touchdown and an interception. This will be Stanton’s first start in his career. With a season ending injury to Kevin Smith it was running back Maurice Morris getting 17 carries last week against Arizona and produced 126 yards and a touchdown with 5 catches out of the backfield. Morris has rushed the ball 59 times this season with a 4.8 yards a carry average. The Lions are the worst pass defense in the league allowing 268 yards passing per game. Opposing quarterbacks complete an amazing 68.9% of their passes against the Lions.
For the Latest NFL Odds Please Visit our NFL Odds Page
NFL Trend: Detroit Lions are 1-5 ATS on the road this season
The Wagerline consensus has 53.6% of the NFL bettors on Detroit –12 1/2
The Wagerline consensus has 57.7% of the NFL bettors playing over 41
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