Packers Are Biggest Divisional-Round Underdogs vs. 49ers
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers embraced their underdog status last week. They’ll get to do it again for this week’s NFC divisional matchup at the San Francisco 49ers.
The Packers are 9.5-point underdogs at FanDuel Sportsbook, the biggest spread of this week’s four games. The Ravens are 8.5-point favorites against the Texans, the Lions are 6-point favorites over the Buccaneers and the Bills are 2.5-point favorites over the Chiefs.
“When you feel disrespected, you go do something about it,” running back Aaron Jones said after the Packers crushed the Cowboys on Sunday.
Even with the big spread, 70 percent of the early betting is on San Francisco.
The Packers were 7- to 7.5-point underdogs against Dallas, depending on the sportsbook, but led by as many as 32 points before settling on a 48-32 victory.
The challenge will be cranked up even higher this week.
The 49ers and Cowboys finished with 12-5 records, with San Francisco earning the No. 1 seed with a 42-10 victory over Dallas in October.
Quarterback Brock Purdy is a leading MVP candidate. Led by Christian McCaffrey, four players had more than 1,000 yards of total offense. The defense is a star-studded unit. And they’ve owned the Packers with four playoff wins over Aaron Rodgers-led teams the past decade.
The Jordan Love-led Packers, however, have won four in a row. They are peaking at the right time, as demonstrated by its annihilation of the Cowboys.
The return of Jones from a knee injury has jump-started the offense.
“We believe in each other, we have faith in each other and we know we have all the weapons in the building,” Jones said. “We have all the weapons that we need on this team. People can continue to doubt us. That’s fine. We love the underdog mentality, we love the underdog approach. And clearly, what are people going to say next? We’re excited to see that.”
After the game, coach Matt LaFleur said there’s a “little bit of freedom” that comes with being an underdog. The pressure was on the Super Bowl-or-bust Cowboys on Sunday, just like it will be on the Super Bowl-or-bust 49ers this Sunday.
“I think we just continue to take it one day at a time and try to get better each and every day and attack the process the right way,” LaFleur said on Monday. “Certainly, we know we’re going against one of the elite teams in the National Football League, certainly the class of the NFC.
“They’ve got a lot of the same players they’ve had for a few years now, and they’ve added some other freak shows over there. We know it’s a great challenge, but it’s a great opportunity, as well. That’s exactly how we’ll approach it. At the end of this thing, there’s only one happy team, period. So, you’ve got to approach it the same way each and every day. We’re going out there to win a football game and we know we’re going to have to play our best ball.”
While the Packers, indeed, are big underdogs for Sunday, they went from +10000 to +2000 to win the Super Bowl at SI Sportsbook, though they still face the longest odds to win the NFC.
“We love being underdogs,” said cornerback Jaire Alexander, whose status after aggravating his ankle injury will be critical this week. “Not me, but we all as a team probably like being underdogs. Keep sleeping.”
