Atlanta Falcons at St. Louis Rams

NFL Pre Season Football

Friday August 21, 2009  8 PM EST

The Line: Rams +3 , Over/Under: 36

I watched both of these teams in action last week and if I was surprised by how good Atlanta was last season, I was equally as surprised at how awful their defense was in the second half. The Falcon run defense was a sieve and I am sure they worked on it this past week but I'm not sure exactly how much could have come out of it.

We know the Falcons have Matt Ryan and Michael Turner but how much these guys will play, I'm unsure. In order to feel safe taking the Falcons we would have to hope that they were playing a long time to keep possession of the ball and score a ton of points because the Lions made it look easy in the second half.

While Turner was the lone bright spot for Atlanta, the rest of the team looked pretty ordinary. Jerious Norwood was ineffective as was former Georgia standout Thomas Brown when it came their turn to spell Turner.

Receiver Roddy White and Tight End Tony Gonzalez looked uninspired and weren't contributors against Detroit. The backups were less than stellar as I wasn't impressed with Atlanta at all.

The Rams surprised me last week. I thought they were the far inferior to a New York Jet team who just barely missed the playoffs. The Rams didn't just play and hang with the Jets, they showed guts and determination and played like they wanted to win.

The Rams have been a one dimensional team with Steven Jackson being their only threat at running back but I think they may have found some help for him in Samkon Gado, the former Green Bay Packer and Houston Texan. Gado had a monster game against the New York defense and was instrumental in the Ram victory.

Marc Bulger played sparingly and Brock Berlin was injured during the game. The Rams picked up Kyle Boller in the off season who has a ton of experience as a starter. Keith Null played as well throwing the game winner.

The Ram defense was definitely moed on in the second half but nothing like what we saw the Lions do to the Falcons. I especially like the Rams running game against the Falcon run defense in the second half if the Rams can keep it close or get the lead. If they can do either of these things I think they have a chance at the outright win.

Mitch's Pick: Rams +3

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