Cardinals Rams Line

Written by Steve Janus

The St Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals are set to face off for the second time this month. Arizona won 19-16 at home back in week 9 after going into the fourth quarter trailing 13-6. This time the two teams will face off at St Louis. Arizona come from behind win was their ninth victory in the last 10 meetings between these two teams.

Taking a look at the week 12 NFL spreads, most sportsbooks don’t have a line up for this game, but I show one place that has St Louis favored by 3-points over Arizona.

Arizona Cardinals:

The Cardinals come in off a tough 7-23 loss at San Francisco, putting an end to their short two game winning streak. The loss dropped Arizona to 3-7 on the year and 1-4 on the road.

Arizona has had to play the last three games without starting quarterback Kevin Kolb, who injured his foot in the Cardinals loss to Baltimore. Things haven’t been all that bad without Kolb in the lineup. Kolb’s status for this game is still up in the air, which is why most books don’t have a line posted.

When the Cardinals lost Kolb they were riding a six game losing streak, and most experts expected this team to struggle to remain competitive with John Skelton taking his place. That wasn’t the case at all. Skelton delivered two wins, and was a huge reason why the Cardinals upset the Eagles on the road just a couple weeks back, as he threw for 315 yards and two touchdowns.

However, Skelton really struggled last week against the 49ers. He went just 6 of 19 for 99 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions, and was replaced in that game by third-string quarterback Richard Bartel. That kind of performance will be tough to bounce back from, but he did play well against the Rams in his first start of the season, completing 20 of 35 for 222 yards and a touchdown.

While the 49ers are one of the best teams in the NFL against the run, Arizona had some success rushing the ball. They managed 80 yards on just 11 attempts, and you have to wonder why they didn’t try and run the ball more in that game.

The Cardinals run game managed just 70 yards on 17 attempts the last time the faced the Rams, despite the fact that St Louis is dead last against the run, giving up just over 148 ypg. Regardless of who plays at quarterback, they have to have a better effort on the ground if they want to win on the road this week.

St Louis:

Just when it looked like the Rams were getting things turned around with two wins in three games, they got blown out at home 7-24 by the Seattle Seahawks last week. The loss dropped St Louis to 2-8 on the year, and really have nothing but pride to play for at this point.

Outside of a 31-point effort in a shocking win over New Orleans for their first win of the season, the Rams have really struggled to get much of anything going offensively. They come in averaging just 12 points a game.

In their most recent loss to the Seahawks, the Rams managed to gain just 185 yards of total offense. Sam Bradford was just 20 of 40 for 181 yards and Steven Jackson was held to 42 yards on 15 attempts. The only touchdown the Rams scored came on a 30-yard pass from Bradford to wide out Brandon Lloyd early in the first quarter.

As bad as the Rams have been on the offensive side of the ball, there’s a good chance we will see this team put up some points on Sunday. Bradford threw for 255 yards and Jackson rushed for 130 yards against Arizona just a few weeks back.

Betting Trends:

Arizona is 8-24 ATS in their last 32 road games vs. a team with a losing home record.

St Louis is 2-9 ATS in their last 11 games following a SU loss of more than 14 points.

Be sure to stop back and check out who Steve Janus has picked to win this week in the NFL.

Comments

Got something to say?