Do the 49ers consolidate third place in the NFC?

The San Francisco 49ers are ranked number three in the National Football Conference as of last Tuesday. Kyle Shanahan’s team took the lead in the NFC West Division with an emphatic win over Arizona at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. In the 38-10 victory, all parts of the team were convincing and the 49ers will welcome the Saints as favourites. A tip on the home side brings odds of 1.23.

The Saints have two fewer wins than the Niners, namely four, and are currently only third in the NFC South. However, the playoffs are still within reach, as the division leader from Tampa Bay has only one more win. Most recently, the team of head coach Dennis Allen, who was promoted from the defensive coordinator position before the season, won the crisis summit against the LA Rams.

The game in Santa Clara on Sunday night is the opener of a three-game home stand for the home side. The Niners do not have to play away again until a week before Christmas. Thanks to three wins in a row recently, the Bay Area franchise will start the game with plenty of confidence. So far this season, they have only lost one game at Levis Stadium, while New Orleans has only been successful away from home once. Between the 49ers and Saints, that makes predicting the visitors that little bit harder.

San Francisco 49ers – Statistics & current form

After the game in week eleven, the cameras captured mostly satisfied faces of the fans present in the “Estadio Azteca”. No wonder, because the – on paper – away game of the Niners in Mexico mutated into a home game. According to estimates, more than 80% of the spectators were in favour of the five-time Super Bowl winners and they got their money’s worth thanks to a strong performance.

The best offence in the league?

While their own offence took a little while to get going, once they got into a rhythm, all the big-name playmakers showed up. George Kittle and Brandon Aiyjuk contributed two touchdowns, Deebo Samuel one. As expected, Christian McCaffrey was also a key component with 100 total yards, made up of 39 rushing and 67 receiving. According to “DVOA”, which is one of the most important statistics in the NFL, the 49ers’ offence has been the best in the league since “CMC” has been wearing the jersey.

Playmaker Jimmy Garoppolo, of course, has played a big part in the performance of the offence. He recently went three games in a row without an interception for the first time in his career and threw for four touchdowns against Arizona, something he had not managed in three years.

The high level of offence combined with the best defence in the league makes the Niners an enormously strong and uncomfortable team to play against. Against Arizona, the defence allowed no points in the second half for the third time in a row. In each of those games, the unit coached by DeMeco Ryans allowed fewer than 17 points. Can they do it again? Good odds are being offered between the 49ers and Saints to do so.

Key Players:
QB: Jimmy Garoppolo
RB: Christian McCaffrey
WR: Deebo Samuel
TE: George Kittle
K: Robbie Gould

New Orleans Saints – stats & current form

It was clear going into the offseason that the Saints were facing a difficult season. Year one of Sean Payton, who coached the team for over 15 years, was shaping up to be exactly that complicated season through the first eleven weeks. New Orleans can generally be described as a surprise package in the NFL, because consistency is currently a foreign word. So far, the franchise has not managed to celebrate two wins in a row under its new head coach. A win in Santa Clara, however, would be exactly that.

Third win against a team from the NFC West?

For the Saints, this will be their fourth and final matchup against a team from the NFC West division. After all, they celebrated half of their four wins against franchises from that division. They beat the Seahawks in week five and the Rams in week eleven, but lost to Arizona in week seven. Will they manage a crowning achievement against the NFC West’s division leaders? In the 49ers vs. Saints game, betting odds of up to 4.33 on an away win are possible.

Andy Dalton will probably be allowed to continue as the starting quarterback, because he showed his statistically best performance of the season last week. He threw for three touchdowns, something he had never managed before. It will take a similar performance in the passing game in the upcoming matchup against a top-10 passing defense to put anything countable on the scoreboard. Rookie wide receiver Chris Olave will likely be the most important playmaker against the Niners as well.

New Orleans allows an average of 24.3 points per game to their opponents, leaving them behind only seven teams in that statistic. Odds of 1.83 are offered between 49ers vs. Saints for the bet that the defence will manage to keep the home side under 27 points in the upcoming clash. However, the franchise from the largest city in the state of Louisiana has already conceded at least that many points five times this season.

Key Players:
QB: Andy Dalton
RB: Alvin Kamara
WR: Chris Olave
TE: Taysom Hill
K: Wil Lutz

San Francisco 49ers – New Orleans Saints Head-to-head comparison / H2H record

A recent game has been on everyone’s lips. In 2019, the year the 49ers went to the Super Bowl later, the regular-season game ended 48-46 for San Francisco. With the clock running out, kicker Robbie Gould converted the game-winning field goal for the Californians that year. The following year, the Saints got their revenge with a 27-13 win over the Niners, who fielded backup quarterback Nick Mullens.

Quarterback Andy Dalton has only met the Niners three times in his long career, the first time more than eleven years ago. At least he was able to celebrate a victory against SF with his last team, the Dallas Cowboys, in 2020. “JimmyG” has only faced New Orleans once so far, in the game mentioned above.

San Francisco 49ers – New Orleans Saints Tip

In the last five matches between the two teams, the franchise from the West Coast celebrated two victories. However, these were always close, by two and three points respectively. Therefore, our forecast for the upcoming 49ers vs. Saints match is that it will again be much closer than the bookmakers expect.

Fun Fact: The last time the Niners won by ten points against New Orleans, which they would now need again to fulfil the offered handicap, was almost ten years ago to the day.

We expect a game in which the defenses can take command. Thus, between the 49ers and Saints, we pick the bet that no team will score 25 or more points. The 49ers are not a high-scoring offense and 23.6 points on average clearly shows that. In addition, the defence has been almost consistently convincing so far and will allow relatively few points to the visitors.