NFC West Week 13 Preview
The 49ers remained top dog in the NFC West last week with a huge win over the surging New Orleans Saints and have improved their record to 8-2-1 and their division lead over the 6-5 Seahawks, who dropped a road battle against the Dolphins. The Cardinals continued their massive slide of seven games by losing to the Rams, falling to 4-7 while those very Rams are still alive, but on life support at 4-6-1.
Week 13 in the division sees the Seahawks play the Bears on the road, the Rams host the Niners and the Cardinals look to capture their first win in months against the wallowing Jets. Here is a little more in-depth look at those games along with some handy point-spread picks.
Seattle Seahawks 6-5 at Chicago Bears 8-3
I’ve been hard on the Bears in recent weeks for being slightly overrated due to their very weak first half of the season schedule, but the Windy City warriors put together one of their finest outings of the season last week in a 28-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings. The Seahawks blew a fourth quarter lead in a loss to the Phins, sinking their road record to 1-5 on the year, so things look tough for them going into Soldier Field this weekend.
Matt Forte is questionable for this week’s game and the Bears will certainly need him considering they are the league’s worst passing offense in terms of yards per game, behind only Seattle interestingly enough. Both of these teams pride themselves on strong defense and the running game, so without Forte, the Bears would be in trouble.
Seattle’s slowly started to see its offense improve, scoring more than 20 points in each of its last four games, but last time they played a good defense on the road was week 7 against the Niners and they were held to 6 points. Look for the Bears to win a low-scoring affair by covering the -4 point spread, especially with Forte.
San Francisco 49ers 8-2-1 at St. Louis Rams 4-6-1
Look for Gore to provide enough offense for a SF win
We all remember what happened last time these two teams met, especially those who bet either side of the moneyline. Now they meet against, this time in St. Louis, where the Rams have been historically much better, but this year it hasn’t really made a difference where the Niners play. They always seem to bring their A game and a stout defense.
However, the Rams do provide a tough match-up for San Fran as we saw in week 10. They have a balanced offense attack and a slightly better than average defense. SF coach Jim Harbaugh still hasn’t committed to a starting quarterback, as his team is still among the league’s worst in pass yardage, but they haven’t needed much production through the air, since they still have the league’s best running game.
I like San Fran to pull out a close one today, but I like St. Louis to play them tough again and cover the +7 points. They may not tie this time, but the Rams will certainly battle hard at home.
Arizona Cardinals 4-7 at New York Jets 4-7
Sanchez will try to pick up the pieces this week
With both teams in so much turmoil in recent weeks, this one is a little harder to call. The Cardinals have been flat out horrible in their seven-game slump, while the Jets continue to get embarrassed on national TV and still have a quarterback problem, among other things.
This game will certainly be low-scoring, but it seems like the Jets actually match-up fairly well here, so I like them to cover -5 at home against the struggling Cards.
