49ers-Packers: 49ers open as 5.5 point underdogs

Although week 10 is not completely in the books, some websites are starting to post odds for Week 11.  Bodog has not yet updated their odds, so I went over to Scores and Odds.  They've begun posting odds for next Sunday, and have set our 49ers as 5.5 point underdogs, with an over/under of 42.5.

This is definitely an intriguing opening line.  If the bookies were confident of a Packers win we'd see something more along the lines of a touchdown spread.  It's only a point and a half more, but given the amount of money bet on football, 1.5 points is a lot of difference.  Last week the 49ers, as a home team, were 3 point favorites over the Bears, which would indicate bookies think they're pretty evenly matched.

At this point, without any updated injury information, I'd imagine the line won't change all that much.  If anything it might go up a little as people put money on the Packers in the coming days.  The Packers beat the Cowboys, who are still a fairly solid squad, in fairly convincing second half fashion.  On the other side, you've got the 49ers coming off a hideous 10-6 win over Chicago.  The win was huge for the team, but it couldn't have given them much credibility in the eyes of the betting public.

Obviously Thursday's game went under the o/u.  For this coming week, will we see another low scoring battle, or does one team jump out with a host of points.  If it's the latter, I'd be inclined to think that Green Bay would be that team.  Given the 49ers struggles, and the Packers very solid defense, the 49ers are probably going to need to slow this game down to a crawl.  Aaron Rodgers has a live arm, and Ryan Grant is a fairly solid running back.  If the 49ers defense can keep this thing low scoring, can the 49ers put up enough points to spring the upset?  After all, who cares about covering the spread.  We wanna hit the money line win!