Niners Favored Over Bears For Thursday Night's Match-Up

NFL News - November 9th, 2009 - Written by John

The NFL Network's Thursday night game is typically reserved for two teams on the verge of exploding, needing that critical turn of a heel to kickstart them into the playoffs. Last year, it was the Baltimore Ravens who beat the Dallas Cowboys in the most-recent Thursday night game played in late December. In that game, the Cowboys said goodbye to Texas Stadium and a shot at the playoffs, while the Ravens built enough momentum to reach the AFC title game.

But this year, the inaugural Thursday game has been reserved for two teams on the verge of collapse, desperately needing a win to maintain hopes of a mere wild card berth. Hopes of a division title have been all but extinguished for the Chicago Bears after a miserable day at home last week against the Arizona Cardinals. Kurt Warner tied a career-mark of five touchdown passes in one game, and threw one in each of his team's first four possessions.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers couldn't fend off the resurgent Tennessee Titans and are now 3-5, two full games behind the Cardinals in the NFC West. All of the Niners wins have been in division, meaning all five losses have been against non-division opponents. They have lost four of their last five after starting 2-0.

But the Chicago Bears have struggled lately, as well, meaning San Francisco gets the edge at home.One of the best sportsbooks for doing some sports betting, especially on NFL games is BetUS which has tagged the Niners as three-point favorites with an even payout. The available NFL Week 10 Betting odds show that a bet on Chicago returns -120 and the over/under is 43 1/2.

San Francisco is a perplexing 6-0 ATS in their last six home games against Chicago.

The Niners are under the control of Alex Smith, who was recently plugged into the lineup for struggling Shaun Hill. He came off the bench three weeks ago against the Houston Texans, down 21-0, and rallied the team with three touchdown passes to Vernon Davis. That earned him the starting job for the past two weeks, where he has gone a combined 63-for-99 for 690 yards and six touchdowns. He has, however, also thrown three picks, his most-recent one coming at the end of the Titans game which was returned for the game-clinching touchdown in a 34-20 loss.

Davis is tied for the league lead in reception touchdowns (7) and leads San Francisco with 477 yards through the air. Running back Frank Gore seems to be fully recovered from a foot injury suffered early in the year. He is averaging 5.6 yards per carry and has five touchdowns.

Part of San Francisco's problem has been an inability to separate itself early in the game and have played from behind in each of their last four games. It has allowed exactly the amount of points they have scored (174).

Chicago can relate. With superstar quarterback, and one-time Pro Bowler, Jay Cutler at the helm, their results haven't been much better than before him. Losing to the Cardinals put the Bears three games back in the division with only eight games left to play. Running back Matt Forte only has one 100-yard game and is 21st in the NFL in rushing.

Chicago is 1-3 on the road, including losses to Green Bay and Cincinnati, and will need to get over .500 before future games against Philadelphia, Minnesota, Green Bay and Baltimore.

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