|
BILLS AT RAMS
NFL WEEK 4 2008
9/28
The surprising 3-0 Buffalo Bills travel to St Louis to take on the
0-3 Rams, who are in a bit of a turmoil right now. Not only have
they sucked on both sides of the ball, but now they’ve got friction
between the players and coaching staff as a result of the benching
of QB Marc Bulger. Tory Holt’s not happy, Stephen Jackson’s not
happy, and Marc Bulger says he won’t play for Head Coach Linehan
anymore.
This does not bode well for the Rams who are already in big trouble
defensively, as they have been giving up an average of almost 40 pts
per game so far. As a team, they have been out-scored 116-29 in
their 3 games. Opponents are rolling up the yardage both in the air
and on the ground against the Rams, as they are giving up an average
of 466 yards in total offense per game (286 yds passing/180 yds
rushing). The St Louis defense has only forced 1 turnover all year
out of 82 passing attempts and 109 rushing attempts against them.
On offense, Bulger has yet to even crack 200 yds passing in any
game, and has only passed for a total of 2 TD’s. Pro Bowl RB Stephen
Jackson has been held to an average of just 53 yds rushing per game,
and an average of just 3.2 yds per carry, and no TD’s.
They are only averaging around 11 FD’s per game and have had to punt
20 times already. And they are getting killed in time of possession
by an average of close to 8 minutes per game. To make matters even
worse, OT Orlando Pace tweaked his groin in the last game so he may
not even be at 100% for this game.
St Louis will go with QB Trent Green for the first time this year,
in an attempt to get some kind of spark going in the offense. As
stated earlier, this change has not gone over well with many of the
players, some of whom have been very vocal in their displeasure.
For a team already struggling, this added animosity towards the Head
Coach will definitely not do anything for the team’s motivation to
try and improve on their horrendous play.
The Buffalo Bills, on the other hand, come in on a roll and with
huge momentum as they have started the season 3-0 for the first time
since 1992. They are coming off of a huge come from behind win
against the Raiders last week and should be licking their chops at
the thought of facing the worst team in the NFL.
Bills QB Trent Edwards has been excellent so far as he has completed
67% of his passes for an average of nearly 245 yds per game, with 3
TD’s and just 1 INT on the year.
Marshawn Lynch leads a running game which is averaging close to 100
yds per game. Lynch has averaged around 20 carries per game and has
plowed for 218 yds and 4 TD’s already, in addition to contributing
another 100 yds on 12 receptions out of the backfield.
WR’s Lee Evans, Josh Reed and Roscoe Parrish and TE Robert Royal
have been contributing about equally as Green likes to spread the
ball around.
On defense, the Bills have been exceeding expectations as they are
holding opposing offenses to an average of just 263 yds of total
offense per game. They have not allowed 100 yds rushing, or 200 yds
passing in any one game so far and they are only giving up an
average of 16 pts per game. They have only allowed 4 TD’s total in
their 3 games so far (2 passing/2 rushing).
In contrast, St Louis has given up an average of at least 4 TD’s per
game. In 3 games, the Rams have given up 6 rushing TD’s and 7
passing TD’s. Both QB Trent Green and RB Marshawn Lynch should have
big games this week against this defense. Buffalo is probably not
used to being this large of a favorite, especially on the road. But
with the current state of this St Louis football team, this really
should be an easy win and cover for the Bills. Even before this rift
in the team developed the Rams were losing by an average of almost
30 pts per game. Considering that the Ram OL has given up 11 sacks
already, I would expect the immobile Green to spend lots of time on
his rear-end, and maybe even on his head, as he has shown a tendency
to suffer frequent concussions.
I’ll take Buffalo here minus the 8 pts in what should be a pretty
easy win by at least a couple TD’s.
Bills -8
|
