The Tennessee Titans got awful news this week when the NFL’s best running back, Derrick Henry, was lost to a broken foot that will likely end his season. The Los Angeles Rams got great news in trading for eight-time Pro Bowl pass-rusher Von Miller. The Rams are better than TD favorites on the NFL odds for Sunday night’s matchup vs. Tennessee.
How to Bet Titans at Rams NFL Odds & TV Info
- When: Sunday, 8:20 PM ET
- Where: SoFi Stadium
- TV: NBC
- Radio: http://www.siriusxm.com/nfl
- Stream Option: NBC Sports app
- Opening NFL Lines: Rams -7.5 (total 53.5)
Series History
The Rams lead all-time 8-5 including playoffs. The teams haven’t played since 2017 and the Rams won 27-23 in Nashville. Of course, the teams played in Super Bowl XXXIV and the Rams won 23-16 by stopping the Titans 1-yard short of the goal line at the end.
Why Bet on Tennessee?
The Titans beat the Colts 34-31 in OT last week to essentially wrap up the AFC South title already but they lost superstar running back Derrick Henry to a broken foot. Henry, the two-time NFL rushing champ, went to the bench early in Sunday’s game but returned. Henry finished with 28 carries for 68 yards and a 2.4-yard average, which was his lowest this season. He played 54 of the 73 offensive snaps. Henry leads the NFL with 937 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns. He also has a league-high 219 rushes, well ahead of the second-leading rusher, Joe Mixon of Cincinnati (137).
The Titans are fourth in the NFL in rushing yards per game, averaging 147.6 yards. That has helped them rank second in the league in possession time per game — they average 32 minutes, 49 seconds. This week, the Titans signed free-agent RB Adrian Peterson, himself a former rushing king. His 2,097 rushing yards from the 2012 season rank second all-time. He is fifth in all-time rushing yards over his entire career with 14,820. Barry Sanders is fourth with 15,269 yards. Peterson played with the Lions in 2020, averaging just 3.9 yards per carry. At 36, he’s way past his prime.
Quarterback Ryan Tannehill has a passer rating of 90-or-higher in three of his four road starts this season while wide receiver A.J. Brown aims for his third game in a row with at least 125 receiving yards and a touchdown catch. Fellow wideout Julio Jones could miss Sunday’s game. Jones’ hamstring has been bothering him all year, and he missed last week’s game after missing two previous contests Weeks 4 and 5.
The Titans enter on a four-game winning streak. In each season since Mike Vrabel became head coach in 2018, the team has had a winning streak of at least four games. Tennessee is 2-1 in overtime games this year. Since Vrabel became head coach in 2018, they are 5-1 in overtime games, and their .833 winning percentage in those games is the best in the NFL among clubs with at least three overtime appearances.
The Titans improved are 5-0 in 2021 against clubs that advanced to the playoffs in 2020. They are 14-6 on the road since the beginning of the 2019 season.
Why Bet on Los Angeles?
The Rams had no trouble last week in a 38-22 victory in Houston. Matthew Stafford threw for 305 yards and three touchdowns in three quarters – the Rams had a 38-0 lead when Coach Sean McVay pulled the veteran quarterback. Stafford has 28 career games with at least 300 passing yards and three touchdown passes, surpassing Hall of Famer Peyton Manning (27 games) for the fifth-most such games by a quarterback in his first 13 seasons in NFL history. Stafford ranks second in the league this season in passing yards (2,447), touchdown passes (22) and passer rating (118.0).
Cooper Kupp caught 7-of-9 targets for 115 yards and a touchdown. He now has five games with 100 receiving yards and a touchdown this year. With 924 receiving yards through eight games, Kupp is on pace for 1,964 yards. That would tie Calvin Johnson’s record for the most yards in a season, although Kupp’s pace is over 17 games.
Kupp is the first player in the Super Bowl era with 900 or more receiving yards and 10 or more receiving touchdowns through the first eight games. Kupp is the third player all-time with at least seven receptions in seven of his team’s first eight games of a season, joining Adam Thielen (2018) and Michael Thomas (2019). Kupp’s 10 receiving touchdowns match his single-season career high set in 2019; he is also 238 yards away from setting a new single-season career high in receiving yards (currently 1,161, also set in 2019). Kupp needs 109 receiving yards to break the NFL record for receiving yards through nine weeks, (1982 Wes Chandler, 1,032 yards).
The Rams are 7-1 to begin the 2021 NFL season. They have racked up six or more wins with one or fewer losses through the first eight weeks of an NFL season six times prior to this year. Every year they did so they made the playoffs, having made the conference championship game five of those six times. Three out of their four franchise Super Bowl appearances began with a 6-1 or better start to the year.
This week, the Rams acquired eight-time Pro Bowl linebacker Von Miller from Denver. Miller joins a Rams defense that has a league-leading 25 sacks through the first eight games, led by outside linebacker Leonard Floyd’s team-high 6.5. Miller has 4.5 sacks in seven games so far this season, giving him 110.5 for his career – most since entering the league in 2011. Similarly, Aaron Donald’s 90.5 sacks are most since entering the league in 2014.
Game Trends
- Titans are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall.
- Titans are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games as an underdog.
- Rams are 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games following a straight up win.
- Rams are 2-8-1 ATS in their last 11 games in Week 9.
- Rams are 0-6 ATS in their last 6 games following a straight up win of more than 14 points.