If the offense begins to roll the game could be over early. If the defense plays as well as they did against the Hawks, the game won't be close. Why the Bengals are favored makes no sense. They have a gimpy QB and Stafford is 100%. Their defense struggled with Kupp and now the Rams have Puka and Atwell. The Ram OL is the best it's been in years.
IMO the Seahawks are probably a better team than the Bengals right now. They've struggle to get pressure with their DL and they aren't a big blitzing team. They try to buy time with their secondary which the first two weeks has struggled. Their LBs are covering gaps to contain the run particularly on early downs. If the Rams pass on first down and get into second and short or medium it's going to stress that defense. It's designed to stuff early down runs and have good secondary play to stop second and third down passing.
The Rams offense we have seen this year will be a problem for them. This OL should be able to stone their pass rush. Stafford should have time to cook. That's why I don't expect a close game. The only way it's close is if the Rams self destruct with turnovers and penalties. If the Rams play a clean game they win.
If they roll out Browning the key is simply don't make things easy for him. Don't let Browning get into a rhythm. When he's good he's good, so the ideal would be to keep him uncomfortable the entire game. From what I'm hearing it sounds like they will start Browning and not risk their franchise QB getting run over by Aaron. Even if they go 0-3 they can come back from the brink with a healthy Burrows and contend for a wildcard. If Burrows gets hurt worse he could be gone for most of the season. Taylor would be foolish to gamble his season with a gimply QB against an OL that had problems against Donald and doesn't seem improved this year.
The Rams simply need to come out and play their offense, and the defense needs to play aggressively. Do that and I see this game as a Ram win.
