Last October, the San Francisco 49ers visited the Minnesota Vikings to complete the seventh week of regular season play on a Monday night. In that game, Christian McCaffery fumbled on the 49ers first drive in the redzone on first down. The Niners ended the first half allowing a third down play to go for a 60-yard Vikings touchdown and their final drive of the game was blunted by a rare Brock Purdy interception.
It all added up to a 22-17 road loss for the eventual National Football Conference Champions.
This Sunday, Kyle Shanahan and his team meet the Vikings on the road again, and don’t you know they have revenge on their minds. In all likelihood, McCaffrey will still not be in uniform for the 49ers, he is nursing both a sore calf and tender Achilles, so he won’t get a personal chance to atone for his off game a year ago.
But want to bet on the rest of his teammates to earn that revenge in convincing fashion?
I do.
The 49ers are favored again, they were seven-point favorites last season and are favored by five points this Sunday. Statistically, only 16% of NFL games have the straight-up winner shifted by virtue of the point spread. I don’t think this will be one of them.