The 49ers shut out the Los Angeles Rams 28-0 in the first game of the 2016 season. Since then, they’ve lost 13 straight, and will try to avoid their 14th consecutive defeat when they face those very same Rams in LA on Saturday.
Los Angeles (4-10) has been awful in their own right in 2016, firing head coach Jeff Fisher last week after giving him a contract extension before the season.
Perhaps that’s why some experts are actually picking the 49ers to win their second game of 2016 Saturday. As first pointed out by Niners Nation, eight out of 36 notable media members are predicting the 49ers will break their losing streak, including Mike Golic and Seth Wickersham of ESPN, and Jared Dubin of CBS Sports.
The 49ers enter the game as five point underdogs, moving from 3.5 point underdogs when lines opened. Amazingly, San Francisco has only covered the spread twice this season, and if they fail to do so in their final two games, would be the first team in 25 years to cover fewer than three times in a season. Three out of the eight CBS Sports NFL experts think the 49ers will cover Saturday.
The Rams are mired in a five game losing streak of their own and haven’t scored more than 14 points in four straight games. Aside from the winless Cleveland Browns, the 49ers and Rams have the second and third worst point differentials in the NFL, at -170 and -131 respectively.
It would seem the 49ers have a real shot to win this one, although that was also said in recent matchups against the New York Jets and Chicago Bears, with San Francisco losing both in embarrassing fashion. A strong case can be made that it is not in the Niners’ best interest to win, as it could hurt their standing in the upcoming Draft, especially if Cleveland were to also beat San Diego this weekend.
Even after everything that’s happened with this Niners team, they are facing an opponent Saturday bad enough that some smart NFL people think they could win. That alone is newsworthy. Whether or not they actually will, is an entirely different story.