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| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | St. Louis Rams |
| 4-10 | December 22, 2013, 01:00 | Edward Jones Dome | 6-8 |
The St. Louis Rams, as they've done several times over the last couple of seasons under Coach Fisher, jumped up and bit a contender last week, upsetting the Saints.
The Rams won't make the playoffs this year, but they can still finish .500 while playing in the toughest division in the league.
St. Louis will try to climb within a game of the break-even mark when it hosts the 4-10 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday at the Jones Dome.
With their win Sunday the Rams have now beaten, among others, the playoff-bound Redskins, Seahawks and 49ers last season, and the Cardinals, Colts, Bears and Saints this season.
Tampa, on the other hand, has shown some life recently, waking up after an 0-8 start to win four of five. But the Bucs didn't look too good in losing a 33-14 decision at home to San Francisco Sunday.
In the early betting St. Louis was favored by five points over Tampa at Sportsbook.
This season the Rams are 6-8 overall and 6-8 ATS against the number, while the Buccaneers are 4-10 and 6-8 ATS. As for the totals, St. Louis is 9-5 on the OU, and Tampa Bay is 7-7.
View Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs St. Louis Rams Odds and Stats.
The Rams were listed as -4.5-point favorites at Sportsbook and other online sportsbooks, with the total listed at one point at 42.5.
It's a betting matchup between the No. 14-rated Rams and the No. 24-ranked Buccaneers, according to the NFL Power Rankings here at Odds Shark. Predictive-scoring models run on this game indicate a potential 20-16 result in favor of the Rams.
Tampa Bay lost its last outing, a 33-14 result against the 49ers on December 15. The Buccaneers failed to cover in that game as a 5-point underdog, while the 47 combined points took the game OVER the total. Zac Stacy tore up the turf for 133 rushing yards in the latest Rams game, a 27-16 win over the Saints at Edward Jones Dome.
How They Match Up:
Offensively, the game matches up St. Louis's No. 20-ranked offense (22.57 PPG) against a Buccaneers defense that ranks No. 13 at 23.14 PPG. The Rams passing attack has averaged 202.29 yards per game, less than the Buccaneers give up through the air (234.86 YPG on average).
Defensively, the Buccaneers feature the league's No. 20-rated road run defense, allowing 121.5 yards per game. St. Louis, meanwhile, ranks No. 6 in rushing offense at home.
A few Buccaneers at Rams trends to consider:
Tampa Bay is 5-2 ATS in its last 7 games
Tampa Bay is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games
Tampa Bay is 5-15 SU in its last 20 games
The total has gone OVER in 7 of Tampa Bay's last 10 games
St. Louis is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games at home
The total has gone OVER in 6 of St. Louis's last 8 games at home
St. Louis is 3-6 ATS in its last 9 games when playing Tampa Bay
St. Louis is 2-5 SU in its last 7 games when playing Tampa Bay
Next up:
Tampa Bay at New Orleans, Sunday, December 29th
St. Louis at Seattle, Sunday, December 29th
