49ers Colts Betting – Young 49ers Come Away With Win Against Cautious Colts
Online betting players would be surprised to see San Francisco favored in Indianapolis in the regular season, but in the preseason, the younger 49ers will play with some urgency, while the veteran Colts will just be trying to keep their players healthy as the preseason goes on.
- What: NFL betting
- When: Sunday, August 15, 1:00 PM ET
- Where: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN
- Pick: San Francisco
What’s On The Line
The 49ers are this season’s trendy pick to win the NFC South and make the playoffs for the first time since 2002, and they would like to show off their depth throughout the team. The Colts are aiming to get back to the Super Bowl after last year’s disappointing loss to New Orleans, and again, this is a depth game for them as they don’t want to risk their starters.
Offensive Matchups: 49ers Colts Betting
There is no holdout this year, which means Michael Crabtree is in camp, and he can continue to work on his communication with Alex Smith, who is heading into the season with the same offensive coordinator (Jimmy Raye) for the first time in his career. Of course, these two will only be out for a series or two, which means we’ll get to see a lot of David Carr and a lot of young receivers, as well as Glen Coffee and Antony Dixon, the two who will back up starter Frank Gore.
The Colts won’t risk much of reigning MVP Peyton Manning and a lot of the first-team offense, including Reggie Wayne and the recovered Anthony Gonzalez, but the Colts are insanely deep at receiver. They’re not as talented at running back with Joseph Addai and Donald Brown, but Brown looked good in parts of his rookie year. Curtis Painter struggled in limited time last season, and he’ll have to hold off Tom Brandstater and Tom Hiller.
Betting Edge: Colts
Defensive Matchups: 49ers Colts Betting
With Mike Singletary as your coach, you have to think that the 49ers would have improved defensively, and they were 15th in the NFL last year. Singletary has a player after his own heart in Patrick Willis, who is joined at the inside-linebacker position by Takeo Spikes, but you also have to watch for rookie Navorro Bowman, who will be crucial this year as Scott McKillop is out for the season with torn knee ligaments. The 49ers have a few injuries at linebacker, and they’ll be paying close attention to this position in this game. Also, keep your eye on rookie Taylor Mays, the hard-hitting safety who is making his way up the 49ers’ depth chart.
The Colts’ defense was at its best when? When they won the Super Bowl, and that defense was keyed by a healthy Bob Sanders, who won the Defensive Player of the Year that year. Sanders is healthy right now, but for long? We should get our first glimpse of rookie Jerry Hughes, who the Colts hope will take some of the pass-rush pressure off of Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney, who battled a few injuries last season. Pat Angerer looks to get some time as the Colts look for depth at linebacker.
Betting Edge: Draw
Notable Injuries: 49ers Colts Betting
Linebackers Ahmad Brooks (kidney) and McKillop (knee) are out, while fellow linebacker Travis LaBoy (concussion) hopes to practice this week.
Offensive linemen Charlie Johnson (foot) and Andy Alleman (back) are trying to get healthy for this game as well.
Betting Edge: Colts
Outlook and Pick: 49ers Colts Betting
The 49ers are actually a 3-point favorite in Indianapolis, and that’s because the thinking is, the Colts aren’t that deep on either side of the ball. We saw what happened last year when they sat their starters late in the season. The 49ers are on the ascent this year, and they’ve made some moves that will surely strengthen their team. Indianapolis isn’t too worried about this game, and as long as they stay healthy, their sports betting odds to win the Super Bowl won’t change, and that’s the main thing.
