According to the folks at Bodog, the 49ers are 4 point favorites against the visiting Tennessee Titans. Originally I was going to title this "open as 4 points favorites," but I'm not so sure they opened as 4 points favorites. While I keep an eye on Bodog, I also visit a site called Scores and Odds. One thing I like about them is they track how the spread changes. According to them, the 49ers opened as 5.5 point favorites, but they too currently have the 49ers at -4. This would indicate a fair amount of money has come in on the Titans so far.
A 4 point spread is a tough one to handle. However, if the spread opened at -5.5 as Scores and Odds has it, that might actually tell us a bit more. It tells us the bookies aren't 100% confident in the 49ers, but they do seem them as the relatively clear favorite. I'd imagine the money coming in on Tennessee has more to do with the fact that they just won their first game and people want to jump on the Vince Young express.
Scores and Odds also has the over/under in at 41 points, the lowest among all the games this weekend. Are we in for a defensive battle? Prior to this past week, Football Outsiders had the Titans dead last in defense against the pass but 9th against the run. They had the 49ers 7th against the run and 13th against the pass. The Colts put up a lot of yards, but not a lot of scores, so we'll see how that plays out in the rankings. But it does have me wondering whether that over/under is easily attainable? I could definitely see this turning into a bruising defensive battle. We'll keep an eye on how the over/under and spread move during the week.