Los Angeles Rams vs Seattle Seahawks: An uphill battle

Bye week at the right time

Looking at the Rams' schedule, I think they don't have a quality win so far this season. They've beaten 5 bad teams and they lost to 3 that are decent at least. Four out of their five wins come from, yes you guessed it right, NFC East divisions. That division is so awful at the moment that we might see a champion with a losing record there, at the end of the season. Their only other win was over the Chicago Bears at home.

They are coming out of a bye week, where they had some time to assess what they have done so far and make some adjustments, going forward. That bye week came at the perfect moment, after a shocking performance at Miami and just before facing a divisional rival - Seattle Seahawks. It also helped them to become much healthier before this important bout. Cooper Kuup and Darrel Henderson are ready to go and so is Andrew Whitworth. Three key members of the offense.

Too many injuries

Cooper Kupp being able to play through a couple of injuries (wrist, oblique) is very important, because they will need him in this one. Seattle was involved in many shootouts this season and you gotta be able to trade points with them in order to stay in the game. With Kupp in the lineup, I'm pretty sure the Rams can do it. Especially in this situation, when Seahawks are missing their both starting corners - Griffin and Dunbar. Their secondary play was not very good to begin with anyway. With those two outs, they'll have issues stalling drives and keep the ball out of their endzone.

But, luckily for Seattle, they have a lot of firepower on the other side of the ball. Russell Wilson is playing on a MVP level. And he's got two incredible weapons in Lockett and Metcalf to run downfield and catch some bombs. What could be the problem here for them is inability to run the ball. I mean, they can do it, but without Carlos Hyde and Chris Carson, they can't do it as efficiently as usual. If they fail to run the ball a little bit, to offset their passing game and keep the defense guessing, that could be an issue. That would allow Rams defense to pin their ears back and go after Russell Wilson. Probably even sending some additional pressure, considering they have Jalen Ramsey back there.

Rams vs Seahawks betting tips

Looking at some of the player props, I'm immediately drawn to some of these Rams' receivers, because of everything I mentioned above. Cooper Kupp is indeed dealing with an injury, but this is a finger-licking matchup for him and if he manages to get through this game without any setbacks, he'll cover this line easily. Another player that looks good in this spot is Gerald Everett. This Seattle defense leaves a lot of space for tight ends to work through the middle. And for an emerging tight end that became a crucial part of this offense in recent weeks, this is a great opportunity to fill up the stats.

But for now, I'm sticking with the play on the LA Rams. I don't think that they are as good as they were in some previous seasons. But Seattle is simply dealing with too many problems defensively. It will be an uphill battle for them to overcome this and I don't think the spread line compensates them fairly for their troubles.

Also, don't forget to check out our new feature for comparing outright odds. These two opponents are both part of the NFC West division. Odds for winning it can be found with this link: https://theplayer.com/odds/american-football/usa/nfl/nfl-nfc-division-west-winner-reg-season