Even with the NHL dropping the puck on its regular season and day 2 of the MLB baseball playoffs underway, football still gets all the attention from the Maddux Sports Blog Today. While you are waiting for our winning NFL Picks to be finalized, check out the Sunday preview of the 49ers/Oakland game.

After the pounding San Francisco took last week at the hands of the Chiefs, the 49ers have the cure to get back on track with a visit from the lowly Oakland Raiders.

In Week 4 action against the Chiefs the 49ers were totally dominated that even the 41-0 final score couldn’t indicate enough how bad they played. The San Francisco offense couldn’t move the ball, while the defense couldn’t contain the Chiefs’ offense even without the absence of Trent Green. After showing signs of improvement starting quarterback Alex Smith took a big step backwards with a wretched game that saw him put up only 92 yards on 13-25 of attempts. He did manage to throw 2 additional completions but those were to Kansas City defensive players resulting in interceptions. The good news for Smith is he faces the vulnerable Raiders defense this week.

Oakland continued its slide falling to 0-3 after another poor display on both sides of the ball. The lone bright spot was LaMont Jordan, who rushed for 128 yards on 20 carries and did find the endzone on a 59 yard TD run. While Alex Smith had a terrible day, Andrew Walter’s could be classified as worse. Walter only completed 9 passes for 68 yards and also had 1 interception.

In games like this it is hard for handicappers to forecast if this game will be an offensive explosion or a mistake prone low-scoring affair. One would think the San Francisco defense will continue to yield points (49ers allowed 126 points this season, most in the league) but Oakland is only averaging 9 points per game, (ranking dead last in the league).

We know that Oakland is terrible, but this may their only shot at a win this season so you should get their best effort. It should all depend on which 49ers ball club shows up, the one that was trounced by the Chiefs 41-0 last week, or the team that looked competitive in their first 2 contests this season.

The bookmakers at Pinnacle Sportsbook currently have the 49ers as a 3.5 point +109 home favorite (bet $100 to win $109) with a total of 41.

Technorati Tags: san francisco 49ers, oakland raiders, week 4 nfl, lamont jordan, alex smith