Thursday, February 9th, 2012
The St Louis Rams in search of their first victory of the season will travel to the Motor City to face the Detroit Lions in an NFL game on Sunday afternoon. Kick off time in Detroit is scheduled for 1PM Eastern Time with regional television coverage provided by Fox. The LVSC NFL odds makers have set the opening point spread in this contest and the home team Detroit Lions opened as a 4 point favorite with the over under coming in at 44. The early money has come in from the NFL betting public on the road underdog, as the Detroit Lions are currently a 3-½ point favorite. The total has saw early movement towards the under by the NFL betting public to 43 ½. NFL money line gamblers can make a play on the favored Detroit Lions at –220 with the underdog St Louis Rams bringing back +180 to win straight up without the points on their side.
The signs point to rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford returning to the Lions lineup after missing the past two games with a knee injury. Stafford is hitting on 56% of his passes this season for 3 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. Stafford led the team to its lone victory beating the Washington Redskins 19-14 at home. The Lions have shown signs of improvement this season but its defense remains the team’s major issue. The Lions give up an average of 31 points per game and 370 yards of offense. The Lions secondary is the NFL worst as the unit allows opposing quarterbacks to complete an alarming 74% of their passes on the season. The Lions run game has sputtered as running back Kevin Smith can only average 3.2 yards per carry on 109 rushing attempts. The Rams are a winless team sitting at 0-7 this season. Their lone star on offense is running back Steven Jackson who continues to work hard in games and fights for yardage. Jackson is averaging 4.4 yards per carry on the season and you can expect the Rams to give Jackson major carries against a Lions defense that surrenders 4.6 yards per rush attempt. Marc Bulger the veteran Rams quarterback has completed 57% of his passes for 3 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. His receiving corps is extremely weak, as the team has suffered injuries. The Rams also own a very poor defense surrendering 385 yards per game as well as 30 points a game to their opponents. The Rams has struggled mightily this season for points as the team averages just 8.6 points a game. The Rams have been bad on third downs this season converting a mere 33% this season.
Tony T’s Opinion: The Rams were very competitive against a weak Jacksonville Jaguars secondary and forced overtime. Steven Jackson is coming off a 134-yard performance with 5.8 yards per carry average last week at Indianapolis. Heck Matthew Stafford is no Peyton Manning and the Colts defense is much better than the Lions. If Steven Jackson can attain 5.0 yards or more per carry the Rams can cover this spread. If this game makes my card I would look to take the points. With Stafford out of action for some time you have to question his accuracy in his first game back. This game means everything to the Rams.
For the Latest NFL Odds Please Visit our NFL Odds Page
NFL Trend: St Louis Rams are 3-0 to the over in dome games this season
The Wagerline consensus has 59.1% of the NFL bettors on Detroit–4
The Wagerline consensus has 52.5% the NFL bettors playing under 43 1/2
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