Tennessee (2-11) at San Francisco (9-4)
Sunday, 4:25 p.m. EST, Fox.
BetMGM NFL Odds: 49ers by 12 1/2.
Against the spread: Titans 6-7; 49ers 8-5.
Series record: 49ers lead 9-6.
Last meeting: Titans beat 49ers 20-17 Dec. 23, 2021, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Last week: Titans beat Browns 31-29; 49ers beat the Browns 26-8 before bye.
Titans offense: overall (32), rush (31), pass (31), scoring (31).
Titans defense: overall (26), rush (18), pass (23), scoring (29).
49ers offense: overall (12), rush (25), pass (6), scoring (16).
49ers defense: overall (20), rush (12), pass (25), scoring (8).
Turnover differential: Titans minus-5; 49ers minus-4.
RB Tony Pollard. The veteran is coming off the best game of his NFL career after rushing for 161 yards and also scoring two touchdowns. He averaged 6.4 yards per carry last week.
DL Clelin Ferrell. The Niners signed Ferrell off the street in October and he has provided a needed boost to the pass rush. He had two sacks in his last game and four in his last four games to tie Bryce Huff for the team lead in sacks. San Francisco is last in the league with 20 sacks, while the Titans have allowed the second most with 49.
Titans rookie QB Cam Ward against the 49ers' defense. He was sacked just once last week with the Titans finding ways to keep Myles Garrett out of his face. The No. 1 overall pick still isn't happy with how Tennessee played in a rare win, determined to keep improving.
Titans: C Lloyd Cushenberry (injured foot) and CB Jalyn Armour Davis (Achilles' tendon) both are practicing trying to return after missing two straight games. ... DT Shy Tuttle practiced fully Wednesday after missing the last two games in the concussion protocol.
49ers: LB Tatum Bethune and DE Sam Okuayinonu are expected to miss the game with ankle injuries. ... K Eddy Pineiro (hamstring) will return after missing two games. ... DE Yetur Gross-Matos could be back this week for the first time since injuring his hamstring in Week 5.
The 49ers have split two games against the Titans under coach Kyle Shanahan, winning at home in 2017 and losing on the road in 2021. ... Tennessee's last road win in the series came in 2009. ... Titans interim coach Mike McCoy is 1-0 against San Francisco from his tenure coaching the Chargers.
Both of the Titans' wins have come on the road this season. Tennessee has not won consecutive games since Nov. 13 and 17, 2022. ... The Titans started five rookies for the third straight game last week and fourth overall this season. ... Ward leads all rookie quarterbacks with 2,468 yards passing and is second with nine TD passes. ... Rookie WR Chimere Dike had a TD catch last week and has a TD catch in two of his past three games. He also leads the NFL in all-purpose yards with 1,984. ... The Titans have 23 sacks since Week 7, fifth-most in the NFL in that span. ... DT Jeffery Simmons has a sack in three of his past four games and eight for the season. He needs one more sack for a career high. He had seven tackles, two for losses, 1 1/2 sacks and batted down a pass last week. ... LB Cedric Gray had a team-high 10 tackles last week and a fumble recovery. ... S Xavier Woods had an interception last week. ... Rookie CB Marcus Harris forced his first career fumble last week. ... San Francisco is seeking its first four-game winning streak since winning six straight in 2023. ... The 49ers are 5-3 after the bye under Shanahan with wins the last three seasons. ... San Francisco has won eight straight against rookie starting QBs since losing twice to Arizona's Josh Rosen in 2018. ... The 32.9 yard average starting field position for the 49ers is the best in the NFL. They have scored six of their 10 TDs the past three games on drives that started in opposing territory with four starting in the red zone. ... San Francisco has held back-to-back opponents to fewer than 10 points for the first time since doing it three straight games from Weeks 5 to 7 in 2019. ... Niners RB Christian McCaffrey has 838 yards rushing and 806 yards receiving. MarshallFaulk (1998) and Roger Craig (1985) are the only other players with at least 800 yards of each in a team’s first 13 games of a season. ... Pineiro is 22 for 22 on FGs this season and San Francisco has matched a franchise record with 12 straight games without a missed FG.
Niners WR Jauan Jennings has gotten healthy in recent weeks and has caught a TD pass in four of his last five games. He has at least four catches in seven straight games. He also grew up near Nashville.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) is sacked by San Francisco 49ers defensive end Clelin Ferrell, rear, as defensive lineman Keion White (56) follows the play during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) celebrates after throwing a touchdown pass in the second half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/David Richard)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Thursday that “decisive” actions by the United States, including the seizure of an oil tanker, have left the repressive government of President Nicolás Maduro at its weakest point, and she vowed to return to the country to keep fighting for democracy.
Machado's statements to reporters came hours after she appeared in public for the first time in 11 months, following her arrival in Norway's capital, Oslo, where her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize award on her behalf on Wednesday.
“I think that the actions of President Trump have been decisive to reach where we are now, where the regime is significantly weaker,” she told reporters. “Because before, the regime thought it had impunity …. Now they start to understand that this is serious, and that the world is watching.”
Machado sidestepped questions on whether a U.S. military intervention is necessary to remove Maduro from power. She told reporters that she would return to Venezuela “when we believe the security conditions are right, and it won’t depend on whether or not the regime leaves.”
Machado arrived in Oslo hours after Wednesday's prize ceremony and made her first public appearance early Thursday, emerging from a hotel balcony and waving to an emotional crowd of supporters. She had been in hiding since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters during a protest in Caracas.
Machado left Venezuela at a critical point in the country’s protracted crisis, with the Trump administration carrying out a deadly military operations in the Caribbean and threatening repeatedly to strike Venezuelan soil. The White House has said the operations, which have killed 80 people, is meant to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S.
But many, including analysts, U.S. members of Congress and Maduro himself, see the operations as an effort to end his hold on power. The opposition led by Machado has only added to this perception by reigniting its promise to soon govern the country.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said the U.S. had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. On Thursday, Machado called on governments to expand their support for Venezuela's opposition beyond words.
“We, the Venezuelan people that have tried every single, you know, institutional mean, ask support from the democratic nations in the world to cut those resources that come from illegal activities and support repressive approaches,” she said. “And that’s why we are certainly asking the world to act. It’s not a matter of statements, as you say, it’s a matter of action.”
Machado, 58, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October after mounting the most serious peaceful challenge in years to Maduro's authoritarian government. Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize at a ceremony in Oslo.
Machado was received Thursday by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who said that his country is ready to support a democratic Venezuela in “building new and sound institutions.”
Asked whether the Venezuelan government might have known her whereabouts since January, Machado told reporters: “I don’t think they have known where I have been, and certainly they would have done everything to stop me from coming here.”
She declined to give details of her journey from Venezuela to Norway. But she thanked “all those men and women that risked their lives so that I could be here today" and later acknowledged that the U.S. government helped her.
Flight tracking data show that the plane Machado arrived on flew to Oslo from Bangor, Maine.
Machado won an opposition primary election and intended to challenge Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.
The lead-up to the election on July 28, 2024, saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.
González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.
It's unclear when and how Machado and González could return to Venezuela. An opposition plan to get González back before the Jan. 10 ceremony that gave Maduro another term didn't materialize.
Machado, alongside the Norwegian prime minister, said that “we decided to fight until the end and Venezuela will be free” and that if Maduro’s government is still in place when she returns, “certainly I will be with my people and they will not know where I am. We have ways to do that and take care of us.”
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado speaks during a press conference at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Heiko Junge/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado speaks during a press conference at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Heiko Junge/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado, centre, visits the Storting in Oslo, Norway, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool Photo via AP)
Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado and Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre hold a joint press conference at the government's representative facilities in Oslo, Norway, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Stian Lysberg Solum/NTB Scanpix, Pool Photo via AP)
Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado speaks during a press conference at the government's representative facilities in Oslo, Norway, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Stian Lysberg Solum/NTB Scanpix, Pool Photo via AP)
