The toughest aspect of the San Francisco 49ers’ first game back from the bye may have nothing to do with the matchups on the field.
San Francisco visits the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 10, marking the only time in the regular season the 49ers will play in the eastern timezone during the early window on a Sunday.
The 49ers have played in the early window already this season, but that was on a trip to the central timezone to take on the Minnesota Vikings.
They have two more games in the eastern timezone against the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins. However, the Bills game is in primetime while the Dolphins game will take place in the late window.
San Francisco has to guard against the journey time and the time change looming as equalizers. All things being equal, though, the oddsmakers view the 49ers as clearly the better team.
The Niners, per DraftKings Sportsbook, opened as 5.5-point favorites against the Buccaneers.
With home advantage thought to be worth around two points to the betting line, this model would still view the 49ers as 3.5-point favorites on a neutral field.
That may be somewhat surprising given their matching 4-4 records, but there is a lot to suggest the Niners are worthy of such a status.
The Niners could get Christian McCaffrey back in Week 10 and are going against a defense that has regressed into one of poorest in the NFL this season. On top of that, the Buccaneers are likely to be without both their top receivers in Mike Evans and Chris Goodwin, the latter having suffered a season-ending injury.
Most of the advantages favor the 49ers. The biggest challenge for San Francisco is to ensure Tampa Bay is not able to make the most of their biggest advantage.