{"id":30088,"date":"2013-09-12T14:39:13","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T19:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=30088"},"modified":"2013-09-12T14:39:13","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T19:39:13","slug":"nfl-week-2-picks-st-louis-rams-vs-atlanta-falcons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-week-2-picks-st-louis-rams-vs-atlanta-falcons-30088\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 2 Picks: St. Louis Rams vs. Atlanta Falcons"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Louis Rams vs. Atlanta Falcons
\nSunday, 9\/15\/13, 1:00 PM EST
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Atlanta -6
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Atlanta -6
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 47
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 47
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Falcons<\/a>
The Atlanta Falcons are one of the top home teams in the NFL in recent seasons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

St. Louis picked up a 27-24 victory over the Arizona Cardinals as 3.5-point home favorites Sunday, while going OVER the betting total of 41.5.\u00a0 The Rams hold a 47-26-2 advantage in the all-time series, but they\u2019ve dropped the last two games against the Falcons.\u00a0 A win this week would give the franchise its first 2-0 start to a season since 2001, which can\u2019t be ignored when making your pro football picks.\u00a0 Quarterback Sam Bradford got off to a strong start, as he completed 27 of 38 passes for 299 yards and two touchdowns.\u00a0 St. Louis is 4-8 ATS as underdogs of 3.5 to 9.5 points the last two-plus seasons, with the OVER going 7-5 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Rams are hoping to put some points on the scoreboard this season, especially with Bradford being protected by one of the most improved offensive lines in football.\u00a0 St. Louis has gone three consecutive games and 13 straight quarters without giving up a quarterback sack.\u00a0 Former Miami Dolphins left tackle Jake Long was signed early during the offseason to solidify that position, while center Scott Wells and right guard Harvey Dahl return as starters to the unit.<\/p>\n

Atlanta suffered a 23-17 defeat to the New Orleans Saints as 3.5-point road underdogs in its season opener, as it lost the statistical battle by 52 yards, while going UNDER the betting total of 54.5.\u00a0 Falcons running back Stephen Jackson will face his former team for the first time, as he spent the first nine seasons of his career with the Rams\u2014gaining 10,135 rushing yards and 56 touchdowns.\u00a0 He\u2019ll likely open up the passing game for quarterback Matt Ryan, who threw for 253 yards and two touchdowns last week.\u00a0 Atlanta is 0-4 ATS versus NFC West opponents since 2011, with the OVER going 3-1 in those four opportunities.<\/p>\n

The Falcons are the first team to have the NFL\u2019s leading active rusher in Jackson and leading active receiver in tight end Tony Gonzalez to take the field together since 1941.\u00a0 Atlanta head coach Mike Smith\u2019s record at home is 33-7 in the regular season, which happens to be the best mark in the NFC since 2008.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Falcons due to their 22-9 ATS mark following a SU loss.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Louis Rams vs. Atlanta Falcons Sunday, 9\/15\/13, 1:00 PM EST Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Atlanta -6 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Atlanta -6 Opening Total:\u00a0 47 Current Total:\u00a0 47 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker St. Louis picked up a 27-24 victory over the Arizona Cardinals as 3.5-point home favorites Sunday, while going OVER the betting total of 41.5.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[123,422,3613,31,623,863,363],"class_list":["post-30088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-matt-ryan","tag-nfc","tag-nfl","tag-sam-bradford","tag-st-louis-rams","tag-steven-jackson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30089,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30088\/revisions\/30089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}