Rams @ Patriots

It looks the inflated Patriots’ point spreads won’t be abating anytime soon, as the whole football loving nation saw them pulverize a Broncos squad that grew more injured and butterfingered as the game progressed. Honestly, the Broncos lost about 1/3 of their starting defense, including both their corners, before the game was over. While Cassel struggled to complete anything other than wide receiver screens early in the game, he was actually able to complete a few passes that were thrown more north to south than east to west after the Baileys (Champ and Boss – with those names you’d think they’d be brothers) and Bly were on the sidelines. When, not if, Cassel’s services are no longer required by an NFL team, he’d be wise to look for work in the Canadian league where they’ve got those extra wide fields, as opposed to the Arena league where’s it all about throwing it downfield. With the exception of one long ball to Moss in the game at SF, Cassel mostly panics, scrambles, and gets sacked when the play call doesn’t involve a throw made within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. I can only hope the Rams are prepared for those wide receiver screens…

I mean, GOOD GRIEF, take an already bad defense, put them in a short bus and have them crash into a cement culvert, put them back on the field and have them play another half of football – that’s basically what the Patriot offense was playing against last week. ANY quarterback can play okay with a huge lead, look no further than Kerry Collins for proof of that. If Kerry had been suiting up for the Lions this season I don’t think he’d be seen as the middle-aged Messiah some may view him as now. It was the perfect storm of injuries and turnovers that made the Patriots look like a legitimate contender and worthy of being 7 point home favorites versus the Rams this week.

Well, the numbers aren’t buying it, because the numbers have this game as pretty darn near a pick, actually favoring the Rams in an upset. The Patriots lost another RB, hard-running Sammy Morris, and are down to who…third down specialist Kevin Faulk now? That’s fine, he’ll still probably have as much success as Sammy because the Patriots have been run blocking pretty well since realizing that they need to in order to win games without Brady. The one significant concern with the Rams coming into this game is the status of Stephen Jackson’s injured thigh. He barely saw the practice field this week, but odds are he’s being saved and protected to play in this game, in spite of coach Haslett’s assertion that Jackson is 50/50 to take the field. The Rams’ run defense has been pretty awful this year, ranking 29th by my systems, so the Patriots should have the advantage in the rushing match ups this game, regardless of who gets the touches for them.

In the passing game we’ve got Pro Bowl caliber (at times) Marc Bulger versus the aforementioned clipboard carrying caliber Cassel. The Rams have been thin at WR all year, and so have been relying heavily on veteran Tory Holt and emerging rookie Donnie Avery. The Patriots, of course, have a fantastic duo in Randy Moss and Wes Welker, the most dangerous 1, 2 punch in wide receiver screens in the league, lol. The Patriots’ pass defense has been a little better than the Rams’ this year (20th versus 24th ranked), but will now be without wily (read dirty) old-timer Rodney Harrison at safety. I have the Rams projected at being 1 yard better per pass plays, averaging 5.7 per versus the Patriots’ 4.7. Against a non-existent Bronco defense Cassel still only managed 4.9 yards per pass play.

All told, it looks like the Rams, who’ve shown some heart and improvement since sacking Linnehan for Haslett, will be able to hang around in this game, and may even steal one on the road like they did 2 weeks ago versus the Redskins, as the Patriots are an inferior team to the Redskins in almost every facet of the game.

Final Score Prediction: Rams 21 -- Patriots 20