Seahawks vs. 49ers: NFL experts make their picks for huge season opener

There is no bigger game in Week 1 than the Seattle Seahawks vs.

the San Francisco 49ers when it comes to playoff implications.

It's unusual for any matchup this early in the season to be so important, but in a crowded playoff field and a really tight NFC West race, it has the potential to swing the division one way or another down the line.

The Seahawks should be elite defensively this season and their offensive line looked shockingly strong during the preseason.

Meanwhile, the Niners have lost Deebo Samuel and a bunch of key role players, and they're pretty far from 100% healthy going into the season opener.

Nevertheless, most experts are expecting them to come out on top in Sunday's game.

Here's a review of who they're picking for this huge Week 1 showdown.

Bleacher Report: 49ers It's close here, but four out of seven experts polled at Bleacher Report are picking the Niners this week: "This game is going to come down to who runs the ball more effectively, as the Seahawks' WR room isn't exactly scary and the 49ers are without Brandon Aiyuk.

I also don't trust Seattle's offensive line to mesh right away in a new scheme against an aggressive 49ers front..." MMQB: Seahawks It's a completely different story for Albert Breer and his staff at the Monday Morning quarterback .

Six out of their seven experts are picking Seattle to win this week.

The lone dissenting voice to pick the 49ers is SI national writer Connor Orr.

ESPN: 49ers The pendulum swings hard back in the direction of San Francisco over at ESPN , where eight out of their 11 panelists are picking the 49ers.

The three taking Seattle are Mike Clay, Jeremy Fowler and Kalyn Kahler.

CBS Sports: 49ers The Niners also dominate the expert picks at CBS Sports , where six of their eight writers are taking San Francisco.

The only two picking the Seahawks are Cody Benjamin and Jamey Eisenberg.

NFL.com: 49ers It's the same story at the league's official website, where four out of five experts are expecting the 49ers to win tomorrow.

The only Seattle pick belonged to Gennaro Filice.

As you might imagine, we're going against the crowd here and predicting a Seahawks upset win.

Anything can happen in one matchup but the 49ers' time of dominating this series is over - Mike Macdonald will make sure of that.

With a half-decent debut from Sam Darnold Seattle should be able to pull this one off.

Seahawks 24, 49ers 21.

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49ers.

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