Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers host the 49ers on Sunday.
The defending NFC Champion Carolina Panthers open the home portion of their schedule by hosting the 49ers on Sunday. Your free NFL selection for Week Two is CAROLINA -13.5.
The Panthers opened the season last Thursday in Denver. It was a rematch from the Super Bowl, and the end result was the same. Carolina blew a double-digit lead and lost to the Broncos, 21-20.
The 49ers kicked off their season with a dominant 28-0 rout of the Los Angeles Rams. New San Francisco head coach Chip Kelly couldn’t have asked for a better start to his tenure in the bay.
But the scheduling of this game clearly favors the Panthers. Carolina has extra prep time, while the 49ers are coming off the short week having played on Monday night.
This is also an early start time on the East Coast for the West Coast Niners. It will actually be 10 AM on the 49ers’ body clocks when this one kicks off.
The Panther are clearly the better team in this contest. I’m not the least bit fooled by the 49ers’ dominant win over the Rams. This is a huge step up in class for San Francisco. Bettors tend to overreact to last week’s results. That’s a recipe for disaster, and I think it would be here as well.
The Panthers are 10-0 straight-up and 8-2 ATS as a favorite of seven or more points with Cam Newton under center.
I honestly believe Carolina can win this game by as many points as they want. After letting that big revenge game get away from them in the opener, I expect Carolina to give an all-out effort for the full sixty minutes here.
Your free NFL selection for Sunday, September 18th is to take CAROLINA -13.5.
