WEEK 1 - Rams vs. Panthers 1H under 24.5, Winner | Spread Investor

The Rams had severe home/road splits last season (averaged 10.4 less PPG and 0.6 less YPP on the road) and are tasked with traveling to the east coast for a 1 o’clock kickoff. I’m not buying into the Super Bowl hangover narrative, but early start times can often lead to sluggish starts. It’s easy to blame the Rams road struggles on Goff, as he threw for 22 TDs & 3 INTs at home last season and only 10 TDs & 9 INTs on the road. His completion percentage also dropped about 8% on the road. I don’t think it’ll help that he’s breaking in two new starting O-Linemen in this game as well.

For the Panthers offense, Cam is back from injury & claims to be 100%, but he’ll still have some rust to shake off. He’s up against a nasty pass rush that finished 1st in the league last year in defensive pressure rate (37.6%), so I think the game plan will be to run the ball early & often to keep the edge rushers honest. Ron Rivera is a defensive-minded coach, and I’d be shocked if his game plan was to get into a shootout with a Sean McVay coached team.