Early Line: Bills -8.5 over Rams

[Meathead]

WOW!

i was thinking 6 and im usually pretty accurate. 8.5 is a huge road spot

http://www.vegasinsider.com/nfl/odds/las-vegas/

[Crisis]

Re: Early Line: Bills -8.5 over Rams

i didn't like the spread last week...i was one of the only people in your poll and i said we'd win but not cover

i think (hope) we cover this.

[gr8slayer]

Re: Early Line: Bills -8.5 over Rams

I'd rather be the underdog.

[Philagape]

Re: Early Line: Bills -8.5 over Rams

Right now I think UB would be favored over the Rams

[Mitchy moo]

Re: Early Line: Bills -8.5 over Rams

Right now I think UB would be favored over the Rams

Exactly, it's not only that we are good, it's how bad the rams are. If we we're playing the Rams at home, we would be favored by like ~12.

[BlackMetalNinja]

Re: Early Line: Bills -8.5 over Rams

If anybody else has watched the Rams play at all to this point, you'd realize that the 2 worst teams in the NFL reside in the same state. At least one of them has a bunch of injuries they can blame part of their awfulness on...

P.S. The Rams aren't the ones with the injuries.

[RedEyE]

Re: Early Line: Bills -8.5 over Rams

The Raiders were playing for their coaches job and McFadden had come into his own the week before. The honestly had me worried a bit all last week.

The Rams, on the other hand, are down right aweful! Expect to see a mass dose of Steven Jackson all day long followed by limited quantites of no one.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

Re: Early Line: Bills -8.5 over Rams

8.5 points is way too much for the Bills to be giving on the road, regardless of the quality of the opponent.

Now, depending on how the game goes, the Bills might cover, but I don't see them being a team that is really built to blow teams out by a big margin.

The Bills are a team that is designed to win by having all three phases of the game--offense, defense and special teams--working well together.

The offense, with Edwards at QB, is designed to run the ball and put together those kinds of 10+ play, long drives that eat up a lot of time and keep the defense on the sidelines and well rested for the 4th quarter. It is not really a "quick strike" offense that will put up a lot of points quickly (although it can do that, when necessary).

The defense has really improved against the run, but still is a "bend but don't break" defense that still can be run on and allow the opponent to hold the ball for extended periods of time on occasion. In the first three games, there have been occasions when they have allowed receivers to get deep on them, but, except for the Higgins "quick strike", they haven't really been made to pay for those lapses in the secondary--something that Bulger and Holt are capable of doing if Bulger can get enough time.

And, while the kickers and return men have been good on special teams, the coverage teams have not always been up to the standards of previous seasons--especially the kickoff coverage. The Bills rely on their special teams to get them field position on both offense and defense. The Oakland game showed how vulnerable especially the offense can be when the Bills do not win the special teams battle.

The Rams may not be particularly good, especially on defense, but the Bills tend to play things "close to the vest", particularly on the road and the Rams have enough playmakers on offense to be able to get a couple of scores in the game. To expect the Bills to win essentially by a TD and FG might be asking too much, even if they should beat the Rams by that much.

Until the Bills show me a bit more consistency in their play across the board, I still wouldn't risk any money on them giving up what amounts to a lot of points on the road at this stage of the season.

[mybills]

Re: Early Line: Bills -8.5 over Rams

What was it for the Raiders?