The LA Rams travel across the country to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the early game on Sunday, for an opportunity to play in next weekend’s NFC Championship game.
Defending Super Bowl champions Tampa Bay were comfortable 31-15 winners over the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild card round whilst the Rams annihilated NFC West rivals Arizona 34-11 on Monday Night Football.
That does mean Sean McVay’s side have had a day’s less rest ahead of their long trip to the east, but they’re coming up against a Buccaneers side that have a large number of injuries.
Middle linebacker Lavonte David has had limited practice all week, centre Ryan Jensen is questionable with an ankle injury, cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting is questionable with a hamstring injury, tackle Tristan Wirfs only returned to limited practice on Friday, and both Ronald Jones II and Breshad Perriman are ruled out.
Don’t forget Leonard Fournette is also done for the Bucs, and Antonio Brown walked out on the team a few weeks ago, so they are limited at both running back and wide receiver.
We are tipping the Rams to win and for that to happen we think Matthew Stafford needs a big game. Particularly as their opponents have one of the best run stopping defences in the NFL.
This has the potential to be a high-scoring game too and should Sean Murphy-Bunting be absent for the home side then the likes of Cooper Kupp, Odell Beckham and Van Jefferson have one less excellent defensive back covering them.
We like Stafford to move the ball deep in this game.
Pick: Matthew Stafford over 280.5 passing yards
