The San Francisco 49ers are the NFC’s hottest team.
Once 2-4 and left for dead in the ultra-competitive NFC West, Kyle Shanahan has boosted himself off a potential head coaching hot seat and piloted his team into the thick of the playoff race. The Niners are a major player in the Wild Card hunt and still have an outside shot at a division title. Though their dream of hosting a playoff game in the Santa Clara stadium no one seems to enjoy is a longshot, San Francisco has the chops to ruin someone else’s January on the road.
The Tennessee Titans are moving in the opposite direction. They won their first two games after losing All-World running back Derrick Henry to a foot injury, but have fallen back to earth in a 1-3 stretch since. Tennessee held the Steelers to 168 total yards last Sunday and still managed to blow a 13-3 lead thanks to four turnovers and a passing offense devoid of reliable talent without AJ Brown or Julio Jones in the lineup (and, if we’re being honest, sometimes with Jones *in* the lineup, too).
The Titans can stop that spiral in a primetime game that once looked like a penciled-in “W” but now has the Niners as a 3.5-point road favorite. Can Tennessee get its ducks in a row in time to fend off the Colts’ push for an AFC South title? Or is Nashville just the next stop for Shanahan’s hype train to the postseason?
Let’s talk about it. All odds via Tipico.