I cannot wait to see Sean McVay's absolutely LOADED squad travel to San Francisco to compete in a physical, NFC West battle. As an unbiased football fan, I'm not quite sure how you cannot fall in love with what LA, GM Les Snead, and the rest of their front office have been doing this year.
They are literally the definition of going all in.
They forfeited substantial draft capital for Matthew Stafford and Von Miller, in addition to taking a flier on Odell Beckham Jr. The NFL is simply a better product when there are star players in large markets, and the Rams have Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Donald, Von Miller, Matthew Stafford, and Cooper Kupp. Now, let's break down how they are going to fare against a tough San Francisco opponent.
Week 10 Monday Night Football, with odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook:
Los Angeles at San Francisco
Line: Los Angeles Rams (-3.5)
O/U: 50
San Francisco's Struggles: Fair warning, if you are a member of the Kyle Shanahan fan club, I would shield your eyes. In Shanahan's five year tenure with the organization, he has only coached them to one winning season despite being praised as an offensive mastermind. And, to make matters worse, if you take out that singular winning season in which he had the league's best statistical defense, his record is a mere 19-40!
That looks more like fools gold than actual gold to me.
Okay, now that I got that out of my system, let's address their roster. Jimmy G isn't the type of quarterback that will extend plays and win you games on his own, but at the same time he won't make costly mistakes that directly lead to you losing games either.
In other words, he is a game manager. I think the organization may move to Trey Lance sooner rather than later and I believe this could be the game that leads to the fans, media, and locker room aggressively pushing that narrative.
LA's Outlook: I mentioned this in the beginning of the column, but LA may have the most complete roster in all of football right now. They have superstars at every level on defense, an MVP-caliber quarterback, the best wide receiver in football currently, and a mastermind head coach. I'm no genius, but that's typically a recipe for success.
LA did however just lose their No. 2 wide receiver Robert Woods for the year with an ACL injury so look for Van Jefferson to be more involved than he normally is. On the other side of the ball, the Rams need to contain Kittle, Deebo Samuel, and sixth round rookie running back Elijah Mitchell -- who has been one of the lone bright spots for this team. Jalen Ramsey will most likely shadow Deebo and/or Kittle throughout the game, so if the rest of the secondary holds their own, the Rams should be in good shape.
Also, San Francisco star right tackle Mike McGlinchey will not play this game which means the Rams front seven, headlined by Aaron Donald, Von Miller, and Leonard Floyd should have a field day.
By the Numbers:
--> Sean McVay is 9-2 ATS coming off a road loss
--> Kyle Shanahan is 23-17 ATS as an underdog
--> San Francisco is 2-6 ATS this year
--> San Francisco is 0-4 ATS at home this year
Final Thoughts: As of this morning, 75 percent of the bets are on the Rams yet 54 percent of the money was on San Francisco according to Action Network. Typically, that means the "sharps" think the smarter bet is on Kyle Shanahan's club. And most of the time, I would vouch to agree with the sharps because they know what the hell they are talking about... but today is not one of those days.
Great teams usually bounce back from bad losses on the road, and Coach McVay is a perfect example of that with his 9-2 ATS record following road losses. Hammer LA. Statement game.
Official pick: Rams -3.5
Follow Jay Oppler on Twitter @JayOppler23
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