Indianapolis Colts (14-2 in 2005) +5 ½, o/u 38 at St. Louis Rams (6-10), 8 p.m. Eastern Thursday, Fox
by Ultimatecapper.com Staff
The Indianapolis Colts, coming off that incredibly disappointing home loss to Pittsburgh in last year’s playoffs, open their run toward a title when they visit the St. Louis Rams in the pre-season opener for both teams at Qwest Field Thursday night.
These two teams enter this game with vastly different agendas. Indianapolis, a veteran team whose defense has already been bitten pretty good by the injury bug, is simply gearing up for another playoff run and is not expected to play any of their key players much at all. On the other side of the field, St. Louis, coming off a 6-10 campaign a season ago, has a new head coach who might well want to establish a winning atmosphere right off the bat.
Consequently, the Rams, who were originally posted as 2 ½-point favorites for Thursday’s game, have been bet up to 5 and more.
These two teams hooked up for a Monday night game last October in Indy. And after falling behind 17-0 in the first quarter, the Colts came back to pummel the Rams 45-28. Indianapolis racked up 176 rushing yards on St. Louis’ 30th-ranked defense that night.
Colts QB Peyton Manning isn’t expected to play more than a series or two Thursday night. And backup Jim Sorgi has been bothered a bit already by a sore shoulder. Indy added Shaun King over the off-season, and he could see considerable action vs. St. Louis.
More than a handful of Colts defensive starters are listed as out for Thursday’s game.
New Rams coach Scott Linehan has just four years of NFL coaching experience; as offensive coordinator at Minnesota and Miami. Reports are that Linehan will try to run the ball more than St. Louis has in the past, and shorten the drop-backs by his QBs. And under Linehan, the Dolphins ranked a respectable 12th in the league in rushing last year.
Former head coach Mike Martz isn’t the only one who’ll be missing from the St. Louis sidelines this season; RB Marshall Faulk is out for the year, and possibly forever, after blowing out a knee.
QB Marc Bulger is back after an injury-plagued 2005, but it’s not certain how much action he’ll see Thursday. Ryan Fitzpatrick, import Gus Frerotte and youngster Dave Ragone figure to get most of the snaps.
Stephen Jackson is now The Man in the Rams backfield. But he’s already been slowed a bit during training camp after tweaking his Achilles tendon.
One thing the Rams still have is a great receiving corps, led by the great pairing of Bruce and Holt.
Indy lost RB Edgerrin James to free-agency, so they’ll give Dominic Rhodes the first shot at replacing him.
The Colts, if you’ll remember, won their first 13 games during the regular season last year. But that was after an 0-5 pre-season.
The Ultimatecapper Pick: We like the Rams at -5.5
