Rams Cardinals Odds
Posted by Steve Janus - Google+
This is the 2nd meeting between these NFC West foes this season. St. Louis won the first meeting at home 17-3. Since that game both teams have gone downhill fast! Arizona has lost 6 in a row including that game and St. Louis has lost 4 of 5 since that game with the other game being a tie. This match up could get one of these teams back on track, but it doesn’t look like either team has a great shot at winning the NFC West. So far this season the Rams are 6-4 ATS, while the Cardinals are 4-5-1 ATS. If you were a guy to take the over under Arizona’s stat line on that is 2-8 mainly because of their great defense and bad offense.
Why St. Louis should cover this game:
The Rams are great when playing an NFC West opponent. They have covered all 4 of their games against the NFC West. The Rams are a much better team when they have the services of star wide out Danny Amendola. Even being held out of games because of injury, has 50 catches on the season for 538 yards and 2 scores.
The Rams have also found a two headed monster attack in the run game with Steven Jackson and Daryl Richardson. Jackson has 150 carries for 585 while Richardson has half the carries for 419 yards. They rank 12th in the NFL in rushing per game averaging 112.3 yards/game.
Sam Bradford has looked decent in games and then bad in games. The Rams are averaging just 214.8 yards/game through the air which ranks them 21st in the NFL. The good thing for St. Louis in this match up is they have a slightly better offense ( Rams 17.4 pts/gm, Cardinals 16.3 pts/gm). The Rams are 3-1-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a loss ATS. They are also 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games at Arizona.
The only chance St. Louis has of covering this game is a balanced attack. They need Steven Jackson and Daryl Richardson to have success early and often on the ground. They also need Sam Bradford to play a lot better than he did last week (Week 11 stats – 23-44, 170 yards, 2 TD‘s, 1 INT (Loss to Jets), Week 10 stats – 26-39, 275 yards, 2 TD‘s, no INTS (Tied the 49ers). Danny Amendola and deep target Chris Givens need to have success against the Arizona Pass D that has been good all year.
Why Arizona should cover this game:
Arizona was the surprise team of the NFL after 4 weeks. Arizona beat Seattle, New England, Philadelphia and Miami through the first 4 weeks. Since then they have looked like a completely different team. In the first 4 weeks their defense allowed 15.25 pts/game. In the last 6 games they have given up an extra TD/game allowing 22.5 points/game.
Their offense ranked 26th through the air at 201.4 yards/game and 30th on the ground averaging 82.3 yards/game. That isn’t good enough to hang with the NFL teams out there. They have big issues at QB which doesn’t help Larry Fitzgerald any. The big news in Arizona is the return of Beanie Wells.
This defense has been great all year generating turnovers and points. Here is the problem with the Arizona Cardinals. At home this season their offense averages 18 pts/game which is higher than their season average of 16.3. They only average 288 yards/game at home though. Their defense at home is giving up just 17.2 points/game which is under their season average of 19.6. Their defense only allows 333 yards/game at home. The Cardinals are 1-3-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a straight up loss.
This game is going to come down to offense (St. Louis) against defense (Arizona). The favorite is 7-3 ATS in their last 10 meetings and the under is an impressive 8-1 in their last 9 meetings.
Right now the line is Arizona -2.5 and the total is 37.
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