Remember all those years ago when the St. Louis Rams lost Trent Green during the pre-season, after signing a big contract, and were deflated because they had to turn to Kurt Warner at the quarterback position? That one turned out okay, because Warner led the team to a Super Bowl title.
Well, we are not suggesting to America’s Bookie customers that the same thing is going to happen to this team with Austin Davis at the helm, but it could well be that this is someone who can take this team into the future after Sam Bradford suffered his second season-ending knee injury in three years.
On Monday night the Rams will play host to the San Francisco 49ers, a team that has gained some confidence on defense lately, in football betting action that is slated to kick off at 8:30 PM ET at the Edward Jones Dome.
In the NFL lines that have been posted on this game by the folks at America’s Bookie, the Niners are the favorites, and if you want to lay a field goal you certainly have to buy it:
San Francisco 49ers -3 (-125)
St. Louis Rams +3 (+105)
Over 43.5 Points -110
Under 43.5 Points -110
The Rams have not performed all that well at home thus far. In one of those games they had a 21-0 lead over the Dallas Cowboys, but blew it in the process of losing 34-31. In the season opener, they endured disaster, as Shaun Hill, who was taking Bradford’s place at quarterback, got all banged up and gave way to Davis, who had to fight for the #3 spot on the depth chart in training camp. That one ended up in a 34-6 Minnesota Viking romp, but things have improved, for Davis at least.
The fact that he has completed 68% of his passes and has a ratio of six touchdown passes to three interceptions should only tell America’s Bookie patrons part of the story. There is indeed more to add.
Davis, in fact, is the best in the NFL when it comes to completing passes that travel 20 yards or more, as he is 59% accurate in that department. What that means as far as handicapping this game against the football betting odds is that he is the type who can stretch the field, which means he will make the 49ers’ defense play more honestly. As a side note, he does have more passing yards than Colin Kaepernick.
If he could only get some additional help from his rushing game.
The Rams have gotten something relatively respectable out of second-year pro Zac Stacy (223 yards, 4.2 ypc), but coming off a rookie season in which he fell just short of 1000 yards, they were probably expecting him to take it to the next level. Certainly Jeff Fisher wanted this to be the kind of offense that could control games on the ground, so as to protect Bradford. Well, there is just more on Davis’ shoulders now, and we will wait and see if Stacy plays – he is currently nursing a calf injury.
America’s Bookie customers should not be surprised if Davis is “gunslinging” it all the way to the end, against a San Francisco defense that has had nice numbers in the last couple of games, but still allows opponents a 49% success rate on third down conversions.
