Will the San Francisco 49ers cover the spread against the Arizona Cardinals in week 17?

In their final regular season game of 2012, the Arizona Cardinals meet the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

The sports books have picked the 49ers as clear winners in this football game and the point spread is one of the highest spreads of the week. The bookies have picked San Francisco to win this game by 16.5 points.

It’s interesting that the Cardinals at 5 wins and 10 losses find themselves ending the season with this record since they had a 4 and 0 start at the beginning of the season, but things just went down hill from there. After winning the first 4 games they would find themselves winning only 1 more of the next 11 games in a truly disappointing season.

The 49ers won the game 24 to 3 when these two teams met earlier in the season during week 8 at the end of October. What is interesting is that Alex Smith was the 49er starting quarterback in that game which was actually the best game he had all year. He completed 18 for 19, 94.7% for 232 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Shortly after that game, Colin Kaepernick earned the starting position and it appears that he will keep the quarterback job.

San Francisco comes in to this game after a big loss to the Seattle Seahawks last week with a score of 42 to 13. It was that loss that dropped the 49ers to the 3rd seed spot from the 2nd seed spot and thus took away their first round bye. They could earn that spot back with a win and a loss by Green Bay.

The only win that the Cardinals have had since the end of September was 2 weeks ago against Detroit with a score of 38 to 10. In that game they intercepted Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford 3 times. Two of those interceptions were pick sixes and the third they were able to turn into a score.

Arizona currently is ranked 2nd in the league in intercepting their opponents. I think this is the biggest threat to San Francisco and has the potential to throw the 49ers off their game and take the momentum away from them.

This is an interesting pick. With the line at 16.5 points, and the fact that the defense played like they did against the Lions, I wonder if that will mean the sportsbooks will have a lot more action on the Cardinals for this game.

Even with the line where it is, and knowing that the if the Cardinal defense brings their “A” game they could be a serious threat to San Francisco’s passing game, I still have to pick the 49ers to win this game.

I also see them covering the spread. If this line moves any further than 16.5 I would withdraw that recommendation though. I would feel much more comfortable if the line was 14, but I would stick with it at 16.5 since I really think the 49ers will finish their season with a win.

For the latest odds, check out the matchup tool at Bet Online. We also have the matchup tool on our football odds page in the left navigation.