Do the 49ers remain a power away from home?
A fairly even duel awaits us in the Thursday Night Game on Christmas Eve. At least statistically, both teams take little from each other – due to the current form, the Niners are a bit ahead of their opponents.
San Francisco have won five of their last six games and have even moved back into a playoff spot after a weak start to the season. The Titans also occupy this spot in the AFC, although their AFC South title is once again somewhat in doubt.
While Tennessee was well ahead in this division a few weeks ago, they actually have to worry about still being caught by the Colts if they lose. Even their playoff qualification could be in danger.
A hot duel in which the 49ers are favourites, but only by a narrow margin. For Tennessee vs. San Francisco, our prediction is still a Niners win, in which they should easily break the 20-point mark again.
Kickoff of this Thursday Night Game of NFL Week 16 is Friday night at 02:20 in Nashville and the game will be streamed live on DAZN.
Tennessee Titans – Statistics & current form
The Titans are starting to struggle again. At 9-5, they are just one win away from their first non-playoff spot – that’s how tight the race is in the AFC. Their big luck could be their schedule, where they still have the more than beatable Texans in front of them on the last game day.
But none of this should obscure the fact that things have not been running smoothly since the loss of Derrick Henry, which is of course understandable to some extent. Few franchises have been as dependent on one player as the Titans have been on their running back.
Ryan Tannehill disappoints across the board
Some pundits, however, were sure that Ryan Tannehill could then step in and simply take more of the load on his shoulders. All right, he’ll give it a go. But then, nothing more than a try comes of it.
In none of his last six games has he been able to throw more than one touchdown. In this time span, his ratio of touchdowns to interceptions is 4:7. A very weak value.
Defence with light and shadow
At least their defence has strong games in between every now and then, which can then lead to victories. That’s what happened against the Rams or the Jaguars. Overall, they still rank an acceptable 14th in the league with 22.1 points conceded per game.
However, we dare to doubt that they will be able to keep up this number of points against a well-played 49ers. For Titans vs. Niners, a bet against Tennessee is therefore our favourite betting option. However, it is very uncertain how big the defeat could turn out to be.
Key Players:
QB: Ryan Tannehill
RB: D’Onta Foreman
WR: Julio Jones
WR: Nick Westbrook
K: Randy Bullock
San Francisco 49ers – Statistics & current form
The San Francisco 49ers are one of the teams of the hour. Five wins from the last six games speak for a strong form. Especially in the NFC, where nine wins should easily be enough for the playoffs, they have very good chances.
With an away win in Tennessee, they could clinch the postseason with one leg up. However, they should not underestimate the struggling Titans – even if they haven’t been pulling up any trees lately.
Offense is getting better and better
After scoring just over 21 points in one game in October, San Francisco have done so in every match since mid-November. Since then, they are averaging 29.2 points and 3.5 touchdowns per game.
This also brings us to our betting alternatives. Since we are not quite sure how big their margin of victory will be in the end, we would recommend betting on San Francisco scoring more than 2 touchdowns in the Titans vs. 49ers. They have managed to do this six times in a row recently.
Running game as main weapon
With 126.6 rushing yards per game, the Niners boast a top 7 rushing offense in the league. That, of course, opens up the playbook tremendously and also gives quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo significantly more opportunities to shine.
If they can run for over 120 yards again against the Titans (they last had 162 against the Falcons), then nothing will stand in the way of another success. A rushing touchdown or two is also very likely.
Key Players:
QB: Jimmy Garoppolo
RB: Jeffrey Wilson
WR: Deebo Samuel
TE: George Kittle
K: Robbie Gould
Tennessee Titans – San Francisco 49ers Head-to-head comparison / H2H record
The Titans haven’t won against the 49ers since 2009. However, that sounds much worse than it actually is, as both teams have only played each other twice since then.
However, since San Francisco is the better team at the moment, we can clearly call them the favourites. Whether by -4 points or a little more is a question that is not so easy to answer.
That’s why we focus solely on the 49ers’ offence for a betting recommendation. They’ve scored over two touchdowns in each of their past six games, which is why we’re favouring Tennessee vs. San Francisco odds again for such a prediction for Thursday.
Tennessee Titans – San Francisco 49ers Tip
The 49ers are in a good mood, the Titans not so good. So everything speaks for San Francisco in the Thursday Night Game. Even Tennessee’s good home record can’t change that, after all they surprisingly lost there against Houston at the end of November.
The better offence and a George Kittle in gala form should make the difference in favour of the Niners, who should also put up at least 20 points again. For Titans vs 49ers, a bet on at least three Niners touchdowns is a promising value bet for us.
Once again, George Kittle comes into play as an alternative. He has scored six touchdowns in his last seven games, which makes another TD from Kittle on Thursday not exactly unlikely.
