Posted on 12/7/2007 8:27:00 PM

NFL Betting Trends - St. Louis Rams (+7) vs. Cincinnati Bengals (-7)

By D.S. Williamson

This is actually an excellent game in which to handicap. Both teams are great offensively and both teams are terrible defensively. Well, the Rams actually aren’t as bad as the Bengals on the defense, but neither team is going to impress you with the way they play the Cover 2.

No, the real reason that this is an excellent game to handicap is because St. Louis gets back quarterback Marc Bulger and their top running back, Steven Jackson, has actually been playing very well lately.

Jackson’s season was over before it began. He incurred a groin injury in the second game of the season and it hasn’t healed 100 percent yet. But, to Jackson’s credit, he hasn’t let it hurt his play. In the past two weeks, Jackson has been tearing it up. So has future hall-of-fame wide receiver Torry Holt for the Rams.

The Bengals have been playing better, but they still can’t seem to stop anybody on defense and Ocho Cinco, has cool as some of this antic are, isn’t helping this team as much as he should be helping them. Their other top wide-out, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, is questionable for this game. Without T.J. on the other side, Ocho might have trouble getting the “damn ball”. That could spell doom for a Cincinnati team that has had trouble keeping defenders away from quarterback Carson Palmer.

The trends don’t really favor either team:

The St. Louis Rams are 4 and 8 against the spread this year.

The Cincinnati Bengals are 5 and 7 against the spread this year.

The main difference to me in this game is that the Rams have actually been playing very well lately. They held the Seahawks to 24 points in their last game and although they probably won’t be able to hold the Bengals to such a low number - - for the Bengals - - they will be able to move the ball against a very suspect Bengals D.

The Rams’ O-Line, their Achilles Heel all year, has finally showed signs of gelling. They’ve averaged over 90 yards per game on the ground in their last three. That’s a sign that they are starting run block for Steven Jackson. The Rams have also averaged over 300 yards per game without their top quarterback, Bulger.

With Bulger back, a healthy Steven Jackson, and an O-Line that’s improving, the Rams have a great shot of winning this game outright.

The BetUS NFL line is St. Louis Rams + 7 against the spread on the road versus the Cincinnati Bengals.

I’m going to take a hard look at that money-line as well as taking the Rams and the points.

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