NFL Best Bets for Week 14
December 9th 2017 - Old Man Winner

SF +3 @ Hou 

Late in the season, when there is nothing in the standings to play for, you begin to look at motivation. Which front office and coaching staff can motivate their team to give full effort even when a win or lose means little. I think that team is San Francisco.

With a new ultra-competitive GM and Head Coach trying to establish a winning culture they will not be looking at improving their draft position and thus tanking a late-season game. On the contrary, they want to show their players they never give up, that they will fight until the horn sounds. The Niners proved this when they brought in Jimmy Garopolo at the trade deadline.

Although you may not see it in their record, San Francisco has played hard all year for this GM and coach. There has been almost no news at all about disgruntled players, or an unhappy situation of any kind. Shanahan is a quality coach and their schemes are good, but they just haven't had the talent to overcome in most of their games. In this one they do.

Houston has lost the core of their defense when they lost defensive linemen JJ Watt and W. Mercilus. Their pass rush is gone and they are simply giving opponents too much time to throw. On offense, Tom Savage is much more tame than his name suggests. All he has been able to do is throw 10-15 50/50 balls to DeAndre Hopkins per game in hopes that he would catch half of them and make something happen. Not a formula for progress in my humble opinion.

I think Garropolo is ready to show why the Niners spent some capital to bring him in and I think he now knows the play book well enough to execute. I think he will throw a couple TD's and make a few big plays with his feet.






SF 24 Hou 13