NFL Betting Preview: San Diego Chargers at St. Louis Rams

Added on Oct 12, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The San Diego Chargers will try to get back on the winning track following a tough loss to the Oakland Raiders. St. Louis, meanwhile, will be trying to bounce back from a blowout loss at Detroit where they saw their already battered wide receiver corps further decimated with a season ending injury to Mark Clayton.

San Diego Chargers at St. Louis Rams
October 17, 2010 10:00 AM Pacific

There is some light at the end of the tunnel for the St. Louis Rams with a talented quarterback in Sam Bradford and an improving defense. That being said, this looks like it’ll be another rough year for St. Louis as injuries have taken their toll on several areas of the team. For a team that is rebuilding across the board, that’s a tough thing to deal with. Bradford has all of the makings of a great NFL quarterback, but at this point he doesn’t have much to work with downfield due to the injuries to his top 3 receivers. The Rams’ defense is getting better, but they may be a draft away from being where they need to be. Despite their improvements, they rank #22 in total defense and passing defense. Their defensive front is decent, but that’s not going to help them much against the Chargers and Phillip Rivers.

We do have some concern about the Chargers–for one thing, they’ve underachieved badly on the road this year going 0-3 SU/ATS in their away games so far. They’re also a team with a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot particularly with turnovers. They turned the ball over 5 times in a loss at Seattle earlier this season and 3 times last week in Oakland. Still, with Rivers facing a very vulnerable secondary that Shaun Hill and the Detroit Lions had little trouble moving the ball against in a 44-6 blowout last week this is a perfect opportunity for them to get a road win in the books with a pair of home games on deck. Off a SU loss to a division rival the Chargers have won and covered three straight games and dating back to 1993 they’re an impressive 22-7 ATS in games played indoors. We’ll take a shot and hope that the Chargers take better care of the football this week. If they do, they should win and cover easily.

Bet San Diego Chargers -8′ over St. Louis Rams