Week 2- 49ers @ Rams

This Sunday, against the San Francisco 49ers, the St. Louis Rams can save their season. They will need to, if they plan on making any noise in the NFC West. Right now, both the Niners and the Seahawks have a leg up on the Rams, two teams St. Louis just can’t seem to do good against. They are going to have to win tomorrow if they think they have any chance at all.

*Offense- You know, I was very confident in the Rams offense going into last Sunday. Of course, I was sadly mistaken as my team gained 238 yards of total offense at home last week. This week, there could be huge problems if some people don’t do their job correctly. Steven Jackson is one of those guys. I think that he has to put up a big performance for the Rams to win. He had 58 yards rushing last week and fumbled the football twice. If St. Louis plans on doing anything against the Niners D, Action will have to get a solid performance in on Sunday. The problem is, Orlando Pace is done for the season, making Jackson’s job that much harder. Marc Bulger also looked horrific last week, throwing the ball 42 times and not reaching 200 yards passing. He has to step things up. Drew Bennett should play this week, so look for Bulger to use him alot. As for the Niners, they posted a three point win on Monday night last week against the Cardinals. Amazingly, they had less yards on offense then the Rams did. They didn’t even reach 200 yards, and they still won! The Rams D is better then the Cardinals D, so it looks like they should be able to hold San Francisco to maybe less then 200 yards, but I doubt it. Frank Gore, the leading rusher last year for the Niners, had only 55 yards rushing last week. The key to San Fran’s win had to be the defense.

EDGE: Rams

*Defense- The Rams actually didn’t look bad for the most part defensively last week, but they will have a tough task ahead of them this week in the secondary. Tye Hill is out 4-6 weeks with a huge back injury. This is a huge loss as St. Louis. They now have no playmakers in the secondary that can help them. Fakhir Brown is still serving his four game suspension, and now Hill is gone. He played a factor in the first game of the year with 11 tackles. Also, linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa is questionable for this Sunday’s game. Replacing Hill at left corner will be Lenny Walls. The Rams defense needs to stop Frank Gore from having a huge game. There won’t be that huge playmaking wideout that they will have to stop like last week with Steve Smith, but Frank Gore can be a tough guy to stop. As for the Niners, rookie Patrick Willis can be a huge threat at the linebacker position. He had nine tackles in his NFL debut last week. However, Nate Clements only had two last week and this week he will have to deal with Torry Holt and Drew Bennett, along with Isaac Bruce. Clements will have to put up a better performance if the Niners want to have a chance to oust the Rams offensive playmakers.

EDGE: 49ers

Keys To the Game: Rams

1. The key for Rams in this one is STOP FRANK GORE. You cannot have the biggest playmaker on the opposition having a great game against you. He’s their only offensive playmaker and he needs to be stopped.
2. Another key for them in this game is for Steven Jackson to have a 100 yard rushing performance.

Keys to the Game: 49ers

1. For the Niners, their secondary has a tough task of stopping the Rams wide receivers. I believe stopping Steven Jackson will be easier because of the Pace injury. Bulger will look for Holt more in this game and San Francisco needs to exploit that.

Final prediction: Rams 24 Niners 20.

GOOD LUCK ST.LOUIS! WE REALLY NEED THIS ONE!!!!