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 theyve got friction between the players and coaching staff as a result of the beNChing of QB Marc Bulger. Tory Holts not happy, Stephen Jacksons not happy, and Marc Bulger says he wont 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 TDs. 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 TDs.
They are only averaging around 11 FDs 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 teams 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 TDs 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 TDs already, in addition to contributing another 100 yds on 12 receptions out of the backfield.
WRs 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 TDs total in their 3 Games so far (2 passing/2 rushing).
In contrast, St Louis has given up an average of at least 4 TDs per Game. In 3 Games, the Rams have given up 6 rushing TDs and 7 passing TDs. 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.
Ill take Buffalo here minus the 8 pts in what should be a pretty easy win by at least a couple TDs. Bills -8
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