Week 3 of the NFL 2023 season gets underway with the Thursday Night Football which comes from Santa Clara as the San Francisco 49ers look to build on their good start to the campaign when they host the New York Giants.
These two teams were both playoff sides in the NFC last season and that will be the aim for them this time around as well. San Francisco will be well on their way with a win here but the Giants would move onto the same record as the 49ers if they win.
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers went into the season as the favourite to win the NFC in the eyes of many, largely down to how well they went last week despite all of the issues that they had at quarterback. Brock Purdy has already shown his worth this term, leading to San Francisco to a pair of very good looking wins and were they to pick up a victory in their opening home game of the season they would be sitting very pretty with a 3-0 record.
The 49ers offense has been in good working order so far this season. They have been on the road to Pittsburgh and Los Angeles Rams, two teams who have the ability to make life tough for an offense, but have put up 30 points on both occasions. They leaked a little oil defensively last week, but the Rams offense does have enough power to be respected. They absolutely nullified the Steelers in Week 1 and will be looking to do a job on both sides of the ball here.
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New York Giants
After a very positive campaign last term, the New York Giants would want to forget all about their opening game to this season where they were thrashed by the Dallas Cowboys in a clash where they were unable to impose themselves at any stage in the contest. To their credit, they bounced back on the road last week from a good distance behind to see off the Arizona Cardinals, although going so far behind to a team like that in the first place is a cause for concern.
The big issue for the Giants here is they are going to be without their one true offensive superstar in Saquon Barkley who has been ruled out of this one after picking up an injury last week. That is going to put a lot of pressure on Daniel Jones, who might not get the help from a weak offensive line that he will need against this San Francisco pass rush. If the Giants are to be competitive in this match then you sense their defence will be required to help but having shipped 68 points already this term, that might be more hope than judgement.
Betting
All the attention of the San Francisco 49ers’ running game centres around Christian McCaffrey and he has made an excellent start to the season but with a short turnaround it is possible that he gets a few snaps off over the course of this match given how important he is to their offense overall. There has to be a good chance that San Francisco get well in front in this match and then sit him a little more in the second half even if he plays the majority of the first period.
That might open up a running lane for Elijah Mitchell, who saw plenty of snaps alongside McCaffrey last season and who it would benefit the 49ers to keep up to speed just in case anything should happen to their elite rusher. Mitchell has a rushing yards line of just 28.5 yards here and the way that New York Giants have already coughed up 100 yards to running backs in both games this season, Mitchell might not need many carries to get to that, especially if his workload comes in the second half against a defence which must surely tire given that this is their second west coast trip in five days. I’ll play his over.
Tips
Back E.Mitchell – Over 28.5 rushing yards for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Sky Bet
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