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St. Louis Rams at Arizona Cardinals Odds & Predictions

Written by Steve Janus

The Arizona Cardinals are just one win away from clinching the NFC West title for the first time in franchise history. In order to do so, they’ll have to get past the St. Louis Rams, a team that’s lost six straight games. These two teams have already met this season, 5 weeks ago in St. Louis. In that game the Cardinals racked up 510 offensive yards on their way to a 34-13 victory. The Cardinals were off to a smoking-hot 7-3 start before dropping back to back games, including a 20-48 loss on the road to the Philadelphia Eagles last Thursday. The Cards aren’t really in any danger to lose the NFC West, however, as the team with the next best record in the division has just 4 wins at this point in the season. The Rams have had a challenging season that has been plagued by injuries to key players and poor execution on the field. In their 6 straight losses they’ve lost by an average of nearly 20 points per game. They’ll try to turn things around this week, but it won’t be easy, the Rams are 14 point underdogs against the Cardinals this week and the total points are set at 48.

The Rams have been one of the worst teams in the NFL as far as offensive production is concerned. They are scoring just 13.2 points per game and are only accumulating 266 of total offense per contest. On average, this team only throws for 175 yards per game and only runs for 91 yards per game. It’s not surprising the Rams have managed just two wins this season. They aren’t playing a particularly stout defense this week in Arizona, but it doesn’t seem to matter who the Rams play, they have been almost incapable of moving the ball.

The news for the Rams doesn’t get much better on the defensive side of the ball. They are giving up far too many points at 30 per game and they have allowed opposing teams to average over 380 yards of total offense per game against them. They haven’t been able to stop their opponents on the ground or through the air, allowing 4.8 yards per run against them and 7.9 yards per pass, both numbers at or near the worst marks in the league. They’ll have a lot to worry about this week with an Arizona team that racked up 510 yards against them earlier this year. Their lackluster performance on both sides of the ball have made the Cardinals 14 point favorites.

The Arizona Cardinals field one of the most explosive passing units in the NFL. They throw for over 300 yards per game and that’s lead to an impressive 28.2 points per game. The Arizona running game hasn’t done much damage, gaining just 76 yards per game on 3.3 yards per carry, but they’ve managed to do enough with their passing game to make up for it. The Cardinals are completing an amazing 68.4 percent of their passes this season and are averaging 7.6 yards per pass attempt, one of the best efforts in the NFL. With the Rams’ defense coming to town, you would imagine the Cardinals would be able to move the ball at will this week.

The weakness for the Cardinals this year has been the efforts of their defensive unit. It’s lucky that the Arizona offense has been so good this year because the defense is giving up over 26 points per game. What’s strange is that they are only giving up 97 rushing yards and 215 passing yards per game. That would point to the Cardinals’ special teams, who have been leaving opponents with far to short of a field this year. Arizona is favored by 14 points at home this week.

It looks like the Cardinals should be able to walk away with their first ever NFC West title. There’s just nothing going right for the Rams this season, and they’ve been especially bad on the road. The fourteen point spread is probably close, but the more likely scenario would be a Cardinals blowout.

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