LA Rams vs Tennessee Titans NFL Week 9 Picks and Odds

LA Rams vs Tennessee Titans Betting Preview

WagerTalk NFL handicapper Tony Finn offers his LA Rams vs Tennessee Titans NFL Week 9 betting preview. At the time of posting, the Rams are a 7-point home favorite over the Titans on Sunday Night Football, with the total sitting at 53 points.

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LA Rams vs Tennessee Titans Predictions

Los Angeles Rams -7 vs Tennessee Titans
Total: 53 Points
With Ryan Tannehill as Tennessee’s starting quarterback, the Titans are 7-8 straight-up when Derrick Henry doesn’t rush for 100 or more yards.
Since Tannehill took over as Tennessee’s quarterback, the over is 28-10 in Titans’ games.

The Los Angeles Rams play host to the Tennessee Titans on the NFL Network’s game of the week, Sunday Night Football on NBC Sports. Despite their four-game win streak, 6-2 overall record, and current AFC No. 1 seed, if the playoffs began today, the Titans are opening up as notable road underdogs against the loaded Rams roster. The Rams opened as 6.5-point favorites at Circa of Las Vegas with a total of 54 in Sunday’s game against the AFC Tennessee Titans.

The Titans find themselves in the middle of an injury storm. They were last seen earning a win over division rival Indianapolis this past Sunday. Tennessee earned a 34-31 victory in overtime on Halloween afternoon. Los Angeles played the role of visitor in Houston in the early Sunday window, and by half-past one in the central time zone, the Rams had dominated the Texans to the tune of a 38-0 score. The Rams’ QB Matthew Stafford threw for 305 yards in three quarters before giving way to backup John Wolford.

The Nashville media and the National Football League portals are doing their best to keep this Sunday Night Football event interesting. Titans’ fan websites have written game previews proclaiming the idea that handicap is insulting to the Titans will find a way to win without All-Pro running back Derrick Henry and possibly left tackle Taylor Lewan and wideout A.J. Brown.

The Rams aren’t talking about winning or losing on Sunday night. Instead, the organization, the coaches, players, and fans are talking about the trade deadline acquisition of Denver Broncos All-Pro outside linebacker and rush end Von Miller. It was just last year in Denver’s 2020 season-opener against the Broncos at Mile High that the Broncos were field goal home favorites in Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans that saw an abnormally large line movement.

The home team Broncos, a short home favorite of 2.5 to 3-points, announced that Miller would miss the game to an injury. The announcement of the injury to Miller flipped the line and pushed Tennessee to being a field-goal road favorite.

An injury to a quarterback rarely moves a game line five to six points. It is the first time in my 40 years of NFL investing that I saw a defensive rush end move a line 5-6 points. Miller was worth to the Denver defense and the bookmakers for that game at Empower Field at Mile High.

The Titans have had a stellar first half of the 2021 campaign. The Titans enter Sunday night’s contest with a 6-2 mark that positions them as the top team in the AFC South, and if the playoffs began today, the No. 1 seed in the American Football Conference. The four-game winning streak that the Titans own has Tennessee earning “Dubs” at Jacksonville vs. Buffalo and Kansas City and last Sunday in Indianapolis inside of Lucas Oil Stadium against the Colts.

LA Rams vs Tennessee Titans Injury Notes

Tennessee has 19 players listed on today’s (Friday, November 5) final injury report. The Titans have ruled out five players ahead of the contest, including right guard Nate Davis, linebacker Rashaan Evans (first game Davis will miss since his rookie campaign), and of course RB Derrick Henry.

Tennessee lists left tackle Taylor Lewan, wide receiver A.J. Brown, and linebacker Monty Rice, who is in line to replace Evans if cleared to play, all as questionable.

Questionable: LT Taylor Lewan (knee), WR A.J. Brown (knee), FB Tory Carter (shoulder), OT Kendall Lamm (back), LB Monty Rice (knee)

Out: FB Khari Blasingame (knee), RG Nate Davis (concussion), LB Rashaan Evans (ankle), CB Greg Mabin (ankle)

The Rams don’t have the player personnel issues that Tennessee does. The final injury report for LA is as follows;

Questionable: LB Von Miller (ankle), CB Jalen Ramsey (NIR – rest/knee), WR Robert Woods (foot), LB Ernest Jones (illness)

Out: DL Sebastian Joseph-Day (chest)

Cover corner Jalen Ramsey is a healthy questionable and will dress and start despite being limited in practice this week. Wide-out Woods and newly acquired LB Von Miller are questionable. Woods is expected to be available, with the only real question mark being the readiness of Miller.

“We are eight games in,” coach Mike Vrabel told the Nashville media on Wednesday. “So we are always going to have to continue to evaluate what we are doing in all three phases and making sure that things stay fresh, but also be able to do what we believe is a foundation for us and our players understand.”

Pardon me if my cough sounds something like “bull crap.” There are certainties in the National Football League. To name just a couple to keep this game preview from being any longer the first being making wholesale changes, or as coach Vrabel verbalized it, “evaluate what we are doing in all three phases and making sure that things stay fresh” is coach-speak. You make wholesale changes, NFL coaches, when you are trying to win the game. Coach Vrabel and his staff are trying to win with a lineup that they won’t on Sunday, and the second certainty NFL coaches are not going to show anything new, fresh if you will, from a playbook in a losing effort.

No, the Titans will not make wholesale changes without Henry or in a game that will be more of a pimple that isn’t going away until it is good and ready. Furthermore, Vrabel and his staff will not hang quarterback Ryan Tannehill out to dry with 25 or more passing attempts. Of course, this applies even more if left tackle Taylor Lewan is inactive.

Henry or no, Henry the Titans will run the football on Sunday. Tennessee offensive coordinator Todd Downing’s offensive playbook is all about run-first and play-action passes driven by the threat of the running game.

Since Tannehill became the starting quarterback for the Titans, taking over for Mariota in the second half of an October 13 game and 17-0 loss to the Denver Broncos, the Titans are 24-11 overall.

An average quarterback will have a QBR around 50, and a Pro Bowl-level player will have a QBR around 75 for the season. Since Tannehill has become the starter, he has registered a QBR of 75 or higher in 12 of his 35 starts. There isn’t an overwhelming correlation between Henry’s game success, rushing for 100 yards or more, in Tannehill’s games with a QBR of 75 or more.

There is, however, a connection to Tannehill and the Titans’ losses since he became the full-time field general and Henry rushing for 100 or more yards. Inside of those 35 regular-season games with Tannehill as the starter, the Titans are 7-8 when running back Derrick Henry doesn’t rush for 100 yards. Henry didn’t rush for 100 yards in eight of Tannehill’s losses as the starter, dating back to mid-October of 2019. All things equal in Tannehill’s eleven losses as a starter for the Titans, eight of those came when Henry didn’t or couldn’t reach 100 yards rushing.

To be completely transparent, even when Henry doesn’t have an over-the-top performance with impressive statistical production, the fact that he is a threat to have the ball handed to him changes how defensive coordinators scheme against the Titans’ offense.

A quick look at the Titans injury report and the players that are questionable to play on Sunday are vital pieces to the future success of this Tennessee team. Don’t be surprised if the Titans waive the white flag this Sunday night even before the opening kickoff, failing to activate leading pass catcher Brown and left tackle, Lewan.

The Rams are the most dangerous offense in the NFC. Tom Brady and the reigning Super Bowl champion Bucs offer quality opposition to any team every Sunday the league has scheduled events. That written, McVay, Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, Van Jefferson, Darrell Henderson, Sony Michel, and again Woods on end sweeps in combination with Aaron Donald, Leonard Floyd, newly acquired Von Miller, and the dynamic island defensive back Jalen Ramsey the best of the best in the NFC calls SoFi Stadium home.

Through eight games, Stafford has a 118.0 QB rating. The defense, all things equal, and critical pieces healthy are the best in either conference. The Rams of Los Angeles opened up the 2021 season, scoring first in their season-opener against the Chicago Bears, and never trailed. Sunday night on NBC, the Rams will take the lead, never follow the Titans, and expand their margin of victory every quarter. The Titans, under Vrabel, are not going to chase the scoreboard at SoFi with the risk of losing any other key postseason piece of their team.

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— WagerTalk (@WagerTalk) November 4, 2021

LA Rams vs Tennessee Titans Analysis from The GoldSheet

The world just changed in Nashville, but there’s still the core of a team with the AFC’s best record that has covered seven of its last nine as an underdog for Mike Vrabel, and Tennessee displayed more dimensions than just Henry in the comeback win at Indy last week when Ryan Tannehill also connected ten times with A.J. Brown for 155 yards. Henry or no Henry, the Titans are a step up in class for the Rams, who might as well have been playing in the Pac-12 the past few weeks, with the Giants, Lions, and Texans (a combined 3-20!) providing little more than a chance for LA to lose focus. Gearing up for a playoff run, GM Les Snead has also added Von Miller from Denver to bolster the D. But we’ve seen this “injury myth” overcome time and again throughout the years in the NFL, when a team suddenly minus a star like Tennessee is just as likely to circle the wagons in the short-term. Thus, we’ll stick with our original thought here and gladly accept any extra cushion from the oddsmakers.

LA Rams vs Tennessee Titans Video Preview

How will the Titans fare in their first game without All-Pro running back Derrick Henry? WagerTalk NFL handicappers Kelly Stewart, Drew Martin and Steve Merril offer their LA Rams vs Tennessee Titans Sunday Night football preview.

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