NFL: San Francisco 49ers VS Arizona Cardinals Prediction and Picks 11/21/2022

Game Time:  8:20 PM ET, Monday, November 21st, 2022

Venue: State Farm Stadium, Phoenix, Arizona

Where to Watch:  ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN Deportes

FanDuel: point spread: 49ers -8.5; O/U 43.5

BetMGM:  49ers -8; O/U 43.5

Caesars:  49ers -8; O/U 43.5

49ers: 5-4, 2nd place NFC West

Cardinals: 4-6, 3rd place NFC West

The NFC West is the worst division in football.  The leading team, the Seattle Seahawks, was not supposed to do anything this season.  The defending Super Bowl Champions the Los Angeles Rams have completely imploded… and that leaves the rudderless 49ers and the underperforming Cardinals.  The 49ers and Cardinals will battle it out on Monday night… and if the 49ers don’t win?... The entire conference is fugazzi.  The 49ers have been touted as having a sure thing Super Bowl roster… they just needed a quarterback to take them there… so two seasons ago they traded a bunch of good stuff to move up in the draft and land QN Trey Lance… a kid so athletic that they didn’t care that he didn’t play much in college… much at all.  They took Trey slow, sitting him while starting Jimmy Garapolo… they were winning but not enough… so they technically Canned Garoppolo for Lance… Then oddly resigned Garoppolo as Lance’s backup… Then Trey got very badly hurt in Game 2 after having a really terrible game 1…. So now after much ado Jimmy Garappolo is the 49ers best option at quarterback while simultaneously knowing that no one in the front office wants him long term.  The 49ers are just all right after 9 games.  The Arizona Cardinals also have serious quarterback drama.  They hemmed and hawed about whether to sign the VERY SMALL Kyler Murray to a very big NFL Contract.  Kyler is good and talented but the thinking was that he would never stay healthy for a full season and he may be limited in the passing game because he can not see over his own linemen. They signed the big contract anyway… and now Kyler is AGAIN injured and missing games.. And the Cardinals again are floundering in the standings.  If the playoffs started today the Cardinals would need to buy tickets in order to get to any of the games.

The San Francisco 49ers are on a two-game winning streak… They ran the table on California by beating the Rams and the Chargers during that streak.  Very satisfying for 49ers fans.  In the last game they won over the Chargers 22-16… which was a loss ATS and the spread was the same as the one in this game against the Cardinals.  QB Jimmy Garoppolo was 19 of 28 for 240 yards 0 TD and 0 INT.  The touchdowns came in the running game with Jimmy Garappolo scrambling for a TD and Christian McCaffrey rushing for a TD… all other scoring came in the kicking game.  Not super inspiring but a win is a win.

The Arizona Cardinals won their last game which was against the Los Angeles Rams 27-17… a big win over the spread.  In the game backup QB Colt McCoy extended the lore of one of the greatest jobs anywhere in the world: Backup QB.  Those guys rarely have to play and they rarely have big expectations on their shoulders… for that gig… you get paid millions of dollars a year.  In Colt McCoy’s case it was a multi-year deal with a 2.5 million signing bonus… 1.5 million in yearly salary and 6 million guaranteed over the life of the contract.  Why do I bring this up?  Cause Kyler, who missed the game, is getting 40 million a year.  Maybe teams who are squeamish about giving out the big contract could find a guy in between Colt McCoy and Kyler in reputation and talent and simply pay that guy 15 million?… spend the rest on an offensive line or defensive line?… and STILL have a Colt McCoy in case of injury.

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RECENT FORM

SF4: 5-4, 4-5 ATS, 3-6 O/U, 2-3 in road games

ARI: 4-6, 5-5 ATS, 5-5 O/U, 1-4 in home games

The 49ers are 18th in scoring with 22 points per game, 17th in total yards with 360 per game, 10th in passing yards with 236.3 per game, and 13th in rushing yards with 123.7 per game.

The Cardinals are 13th in scoring with 23 points per game, 12th in total yards with 333.7 per game, 18th in passing yards with 220.6 per game, and 19th in rushing yards with 113.1 per game.

The 49ers defense is 1st in defending total yards with 280.6 allowed per game, 8th in defending passing yards with 197.9 per game, 2nd in defense of rushing yards with 82.7 allowed per game, and 4th in defense of points with 18.1 per game allowed.

The Cardinals are 23rd in defense of total yards with 357.6 per game, 23rd in defense of passing yards with 247.1 per game, 9th in defense of rushing yards with 110.5 per game, and 30th in defense of points by allowing 25.8 points per game.

Our prediction for Monday, November 21st is… 49ers 30 - Cardinals 18

 

Blow out alert.  The 49ers are just finding their stride while the Cardinals are not sure whether Kyler will play or not.  Yes, the Cardinals just beat the Rams but everybody beats the Rams this year!  The Cardinals give up so many points per game that it is practically written in the sky.

 

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The Cardinals are 3-1 ATS versus the 49ers in San Francisco the last 3 seasons.

The 49ers are 35-13 ATS when playing on Monday night since 1992.

The 49ers are 9-2 ATS after non-conference games the last 3 seasons.

49ers: QB Jimmy Garoppolo, RB Christainn McCaffrey, WRE Brandon Aiyuk, WR Deebo Samuel, TE Tyler Croft, TE George Kittle, LT Trent Williams, LG Aaron Banks, C Jake Brendel, RG Spencer Burford, RT Mike McGlichey

Cardinals: QB Colt McCoy, RB Jammes Conner, WR Rondale Moore, WR DeAndre Hopkins, TE Trey McBride, TE Zach Ertz, LT Josh Jones, LG Rashaad Coward, C Billy Price, RG Lecitus Smith, RT Kelvin Beachum

Mostly Sunny, Humidity 20%, Wind 5 mph.  The temp will dip in time for the night game… but still pretty wonderful for a crowd and the ball.