The San Francisco 49ers have not even played their Week 1 Monday Night Football game, and we already have an opening gambling line for the team's Week 2 matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Las Vegas SuperBook has the Steelers installed as a 6.5-point favorite for later this week.
Back in April, when the schedule was first released, CG Technology put together early lines for every single NFL game between Weeks 1 and 16. CG Technology operates several sportsbooks in Las Vegas, so it is interesting to see how they are installing numbers early. At that point, they listed the 49ers as 2.5-point underdogs. I do not know if the SuperBook works with CG Technology, but we can infer the number would have changed even if they are not connected to them.
The Steelers will be without Le'Veon Bell (suspension), Martavis Bryant (suspension) and Maurkice Pouncey (ankle). However, the benefit for them is they have been resting since last Thursday, while the 49ers are playing Monday night and then traveling east. That kind of travel does not bode well for west coast teams.
Of course, we also have no idea what to make of this 49ers team quite yet. They will face the Minnesota Vikings Monday evening, at which point we still start to get some answers. Good or bad, we are going to start to learn a good deal about this team in a hurry. Maybe then we see the line adjust to some degree.