49ers odds against Tampa Bay keep improving according to Vegas

The San Francisco 49ers open up the 2019 regular season on the road against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next Sunday. Every week, we are going to talk a little bit about gambling. On Thursday’s or Friday’s, we’ll have three games from around the league, as well as the odds for the 49ers that week.

The Niners opened up as 2.5 point underdogs against Tampa Bay in May. At the time of writing this, the line is currently down to a “pick ‘em.” That’s about as much movement as you’ll see, save for an Andrew Luck type of injury. Objectively, when you see the line trend like this, that’s Vegas’ way of telling you to bet the 49ers.

The game’s total is set at 50. ESPN simulated a score of 37-14, which is comfortably over the total. I’d be surprised if this was a low scoring game. There are still questions about the 49ers secondary. Tampa Bay’s secondary doesn’t feature any “impact” players, and they don’t have a pass rush. I could see a 27-24, 31-27 type of shootout. Ultimately, I expect the Bucs to be slowed by the 49ers defensive line. We’ll get into plenty of analysis throughout the week with predictions, but I do think Tampa Bay will be able to hit a few big plays.

We’ll be back later this week with Fooch to talk more about this game, and three others.