Sport: NFLPick Selection: San Francisco 49ers +10 -115
San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks 8:30 PM ET
San Francisco 49ers +10 -115
Despite an offense that has displayed remarkably little scoring punch, the 49ers go into tonight's game in Seattle just two games behind the Seahawks, who lead the division with a .500 record at 4-4. Seattle has done nothing to show impressiveness this season and the only reason it is laying this amount of points is due to the 49ers losing streak of six straight games. Injuries have played a big role in that but San Francisco is as healthy as it has been since the first couple weeks of the year.
Running back Frank Gore made dramatic improvement on his sprained ankle. Gore sat out last Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons as the 49ers lost their sixth consecutive game and struggled again on offense. With their NFC West division hopes hanging by a thread, the 49ers were eager to get back the player who rushed for 144 yards during his last visit to Seattle in December. Seattle has been great against the run this season but this will be its biggest test since playing the Steelers and allowing 102 yards to Willie Parker.
Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren noted that 10 Seahawks had missed practices leading up to tonight's game. Among them was running back Shaun Alexander, who hurt his knee and ankle in an overtime loss to Cleveland last week. He is having a horrible season anyway and Seattle is going to looking to be a pass-first offense tonight. The 49ers are good against the pass as they are ranked 11th in the league in ypa and 15th in ypg. Deion Branch who had a career high 130 yards receiving in the first meeting likely isn?t going to play either.
The recent play of the offenses looks like it favors Seattle but it actually sets the 49ers up in a great situation. Play against home teams after scoring and allowing 30 points or more last game against going up against an opponent after scoring seven points or less in the first half in two straight games. This situation is 34-9 ATS (79.1 percent) since 1983 with the average score differential being +0.2 ppg. This is a perfect 3-0 this season and has won 14 of the last 16 times (87.5 percent) over the last 10 seasons. Play San Francisco 49ers 2 Units
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