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The 49ers are 9.5 Point Favorites Over the Packers

You could argue the 49ers and the Packers are the two best teams remaining in the NFC, considering the Packers beat the Lions 29-22 on Thanksgiving.
Grant Cohn|
The 49ers are 9.5 Point Favorites Over the Packers
The 49ers are 9.5 Point Favorites Over the Packers

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers are Packers and two of the hottest teams in the NFL.

Both have won 7 of their past 10 games, both have quarterbacks who are playing as well as anyone in the NFL and both have blown out the Cowboys this season.

You could argue the 49ers and the Packers are the two best teams remaining in the NFC, considering the Packers beat the Lions 29-22 on Thanksgiving, although they also lost to the Buccaneers a few weeks ago. Still, the Packers are young and peaking at the right time.

And the oddsmakers couldn't care less.

Despite the Packers extremely impressive performance in the wild card round of the playoffs, the 49ers are 9.5-point favorites to beat them this Saturday at Levi's Stadium, according to BetUS.

A 9.5-point spread seems excessive. Yes, when the 49ers win, they typically win by double digits. So if you think the 49ers will win, I understand why you'd expect a double-digit victory.

But the 49ers also haven't beaten an elite quarterback this season. They beat Matthew Stafford when Cooper Kupp was out, and they beat Dak Prescott, who's decidedly not elite. But they lost to Kirk Cousins, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson. Those three shredded the 49ers defense. What will Love do to it?

During the past 10 games, Love has been the second-most efficient quarterback in the NFL after Brock Purdy, and Love rarely turns the ball over. Plus he's mobile and he can escape the pocket and make throws on the run -- exactly the kind of quarterback who gives the 49ers problems.

The 49ers should win, but I would be shocked if they cover this spread.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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