Good betting, bad football: San Francisco 49ers vs. Arizona Cardinals on MNF

At this point in the NFL betting season, most teams playing at a .300 clip have fired the head coach or are in full rebuilding mode; not so in the NFC West, where the identically 3-7 San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals play on Monday Night Football to keep hopes for a playoff spot alive.

Sure to be an intriguing (if sloppy) game, online sportsbooks Brobury Sports, Bet365 and BetUS have lots of interesting betting offers.

The sportsbooks have the hometown Cardinals as 1.5-point underdogs and with bet365’s 40.5-point over/under line in effect, a score of about 21-20 is expected: a rare exciting result for either of these teams in 2010, and thus a bit hard to believe. At first glance, the Cardinals appear to have one statistic on their side: Their six remaining games (starting with the 49ers on MNF, continuing next week vs. the West’s “leading” St. Louis Rams) are against teams with losing records.

But to say the Cardinals have been brutal lately would be an understatement: Arizona has lost five in a row, including losses to chumps like the Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks (twice). The average result of a 2010 Arizona game has been for the Cardinals to lose by 10.5 points – how did these guys win three games? Brobury Sports actually lists the money line in this game as OFF, while bet365 offers a Cardinal win at 1/1, just slightly better than the 49ers’ 5/6.

As for those 49ers, head coach Mike Singletary had his team resembling a proper NFL team for a five-week stretch in which the team went 3-1 after five straight losses to open 2010. Unheralded QB Troy Smith looked good in his debut, going for over 350 yards passing, and Frank Gore has been his awesome self all year – and then San Francisco hosted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers only to be crushed, 21-0.

Surely even Singletary realizes he’ll have to go back to basics in the game plan against the league’s no. 30 running defense – Gore got just 12 carries against Tampa Bay – and so one of the best bets on the board may be BetUS’ “Frank Gore Total Rushing Yards” proposition: The over/under is just 93.5 with odds of 13/15 both ways.

Finally, for the truly insane: Brobury Sports updated NFC Champion prop bet includes the 49ers getting 40/1 odds to win the conference, while the Cardinals get 250/1.

For betting on the NFL, please visit one of Jackpot Finder top sports betting sites: Brobury Sports, Bet365 or BetUS. At BetUS, punters parlay NFL games with NHL, NBA, and NCAA basketball games.