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Well, 49ers-Seahawks week is upon us, and San Francisco opened as modest favorites against Seattle. The line varies across sites, but Odds Shark opened with the 49ers as 1.5 point favorites. The line has climbed to 2.5 points at some sites. Over at Scores And Odds, the 49ers opened as 2.5 point favorites, and the line has gone down to 1.5 points. The Seahawks win over the Saints has not had a significant impact yet.
The home team gets three points for home field advantage, so this would indicate the Seahawks would be a slight favorite on a neutral site. It's not just a matter of subtracting three points from the current spread, but I wouldn't imagine a huge swing the other way.
This game features a lot of x-factors for the 49ers. I suppose that's a lazy way of saying anything could happen, but given what's going on with the offense, there are plenty of questions. One of the biggest questions is how the return of Michael Crabtree will impact the rest of the offense. The offense showed improvement against the Rams, but can they build on it against the Seahawks.
That leads to a second big question: the offensive line. James broke down the sacks taken on Sunday, and we'll have some more on the offensive line later in the week. The team will likely be rolling out Alex Boone at left tackle, Adam Snyder at left guard and Joe Looney at right guard. The team had the same offensive line in place for most of the last two seasons, and now they will be rolling out some serious changes. The group did fairly well on Sunday against the Rams. The pass blocking was solid enough, while the run blocking could use some improvement. Can a full week together help this unit gel in the short term?
The 49ers can definitely win this game, but this as much about the process as it is about the results. It is important to get the win, but we're reaching a point where it would be nice to see the team put together more complete performances against quality teams. And they don't come much more quality than the Seahawks at this point in the season. The 49ers have injury issues to deal with along the line, but they're also getting talent back on both sides of the ball. The talent and the game-planning for this game will give us a better idea of where this 49ers team is at. This team has what it takes to win games, but we need to start seeing some more consistency.
