Philadelphia Eagles at St Louis Rams Betting pick | 2011-09-11

NFL Football

2011-09-11 - Philadelphia Eagles at St Louis Rams

A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown

Philadelphia Eagles @ St Louis Rams
United States: NFL Football
Sunday 11 September 2011 - Kick Off 1pm ET
6pm (British Standard Time)

Preview

This is a big season for the Philadelphia Eagles as they have spent a lot of money in the offseason in a bid to win the SuperBowl. They are the clear favourites to take the NFC East title for the 2nd season in a row with Michael Vick leading a number of big name players. The St Louis Rams are a young team, but they must feel they can make a real impact in the weak NFC West and the Play Offs are a real possibility for the team.

Every NFL fan out there will know the kind of moves the Eagles have made in the free agency market- the biggest of those was signing Nnamdi Asomugha, one of the best, if not THE best, CBs in the NFL. He will join Asante Samuel and new signing Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie in the Secondary although there are some issues with the middle of the field for the Defense.

Jason Babin will provide a bigger pass rush for the team along with Cullen Jenkins while the Offense were given some new weapons in the form of Steve Smith (WR) and Ronnie Brown (RB).

The biggest key to the whole organisation is whether Michael Vick will be able to produce the same level of play at QB as he did last season when he was a real revelation. It is the dual threat he provided that really sparked the organisation last year, although there have been a couple of issues on the Offensive Line in the preseason that will need to be addressed if they really want a long run to the SuperBowl.

This is also no 'gimme' facing an improving St Louis Rams side that finished 7-9 last season following a 1-15 year. They are young and getting better on both sides of the ball and look to have a real star QB in Sam Bradford who will lead the organisation for many years to come.

The Offense have been given Mike Sims-Walker (WR) and Cadillac Williams (RB), the latter who will play behind solid Steven Jackson. St Louis will be expecting the Defense to continue their strong play from last season when they allowed just 20.5 points per game, ranking 12th in the NFL.

Head to Head

Philadelphia have now won 3 of their last 4 games against the Rams, although the last of those was back in 2008.

The Eagles are 7-1-1 against the spread in the last 9 meetings between the teams while the favourite is 6-2-1 against the spread in the last 9 meetings.

Other Interesting Notes

St Louis are 7-3 against the spread in their last 10 games as the underdog. They are 15-33-3 against the spread in their last 51 games in September.

The Rams are 5-2 against the spread in their last 7 home games.

However, Week 1 has been a bad time for them in recent seasons: the Rams are 1-9-1 against the spread in the last 11 seasons in Week 1.

Philadelphia are 0-4 against the spread in their last 4 games as the favourite. They are 1-5 against the spread in their last 6 games against the NFC.

77% of the money reported in Vegas has been on the Eagles which is no real surprise considering the media attention around this team.

Prediction

This should be a fascinating insight into what we can expect from the Philadelphia Eagles this season as this is no easy task.

The Eagles should be able to cover up their deficiencies in the middle of their Defense by getting pressure on Sam Bradford and knowing their CBs are some of the best in the business. I do expect the Rams will have some success getting to the middle through Bradford's arm, but there could be a lot of pressure on him if they cannot get the ball running through Steven Jackson.

Steve Spagnuola's Defense will definitely get some joy against the Offensive Line of the Eagles and will be able to harry Michael Vick, but whether they can do enough to cover his dual threat is another question.

I think the key to the game, as with any in the NFL, is the turnover battle, and I think the Eagles may just have the edge as their pass rush hassles Bradford into one too many throws which is picked off by one of the CBs.

Michael Vick and the Offense should make enough big plays to score the points that take them through to the win.

The Statistics :

ST. LOUIS RAMS LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2010-12-26	W	25-17	H v San Francisco 49Ers
	2010-12-19	L	13-27	H v Kansas City Chiefs
	2010-11-21	L	17-34	H v Atlanta Falcons
	2010-10-31	W	20-10	H v Carolina Panthers
	2010-10-17	W	20-17	H v San Diego Chargers
	2010-10-03	W	20-3	H v Seattle Seahawks

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2010-12-19	W	31-38	A v New York Giants
	2010-12-12	W	27-30	A v Dallas Cowboys
	2010-11-28	L	31-26	A v Chicago Bears
	2010-11-15	W	28-59	A v Washington Redskins
	2010-10-24	L	37-19	A v Tennessee Titans
	2010-10-10	W	24-27	A v San Francisco 49Ers

HEAD TO HEAD ST. LOUIS RAMS v PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
DATE	HOME	SCORE	AWAY
2005-12-18	St. Louis Rams	16-17	Philadelphia Eagles
2004-12-27	St. Louis Rams	20-7	Philadelphia Eagles
2002-01-27	St. Louis Rams	29-24	Philadelphia Eagles
1990-09-23	St. Louis Rams	21-27	Philadelphia Eagles