Okay, carve up that food into leftovers, find an excuse to avoid the shopping lunacy of Black Friday (no matter how much your patriotic duty depends on you spending money) and settle into a day of college football. Oh, and here's the latest in St. Louis Rams to get you started.
WR Danario Alexander expects to be back in action for the Rams against Denver this week. That's god news for a game in which the Rams opponent is having problems defending 3 and 4 receiver sets.
The Donkeys are also soft against the run, which is good news for Steven Jackson who has been sleeping in an altitude tent in prep for the Mile High game. Speaking of the run, you can tell in that article that Jackson would like to see more carries. Can't blame him there. And it raises a good point, something that we'll dive into the stats on later: does it seem like the Rams aren't running as much as they should be? They've got a solid RB/FB combination, but seem to prefer runs out of other formations, and little running at all inside the 10-yard line. Seems like Denver would be a good opponent for some power running.
Bernie says this three game road trip is a big test for Spagnuolo, who has his team oh so close to winning games.
Sam Bradford had a rare off day on third downs against the Falcons last week, Sando has the stats. Had he made that shovel pass that got intercepted his third down rating would have been 90.0 rather than 3.2. Another thought, 11 third downs last week, the Rams passed on 9 of them. Without going back and looking at the data, i.e. the yards to go on those downs, it's hard to say for sure, but again you wonder why they're not running more. That shovel pass had two yards for a TD...would a run play have been the better call?
The Broncos are keyed-in on Steven Jackson. As they should be.
And here's a look at the Broncos pass defense and the difference between last year and this one, via Mile High Report.