Los Angeles Rams vs San Francisco 49ers Betting Preview

The NFC West will be the focus of this week’s Monday Night Football matchup when the Los Angeles Rams head to Santa Clara to take on the San Francisco 49ers. Both teams suffered disappointing losses last week and will look to bounce back this week. And while the Rams are currently ahead of the Niners in the NFC West standings, this game could truly go either way.

Los Angeles Rams

Last week, the Los Angeles Rams are going to try and rebound from their disappointing loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday Night Football. Los Angeles struggled on both sides of the ball but were especially ineffective on offense, where they were held under 20 points by a Titans team that has struggled on and off defensively for the bulk of the year. Making matters worse, Matthew Stafford sustained an ankle injury in that game.

Stafford sprained his ankle against the Titans and is listed as questionable for this contest against the Niners. Stafford isn’t exactly known for his mobility, but an ankle injury would impact his ability to throw the football and could derail the potent Rams offense. While the Rams are 3.5-point favorites coming into this game, bettors may want to know the status of Stafford before firing away on this matchup.

San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers had a golden opportunity to pick up a win in the division last week against the Arizona Cardinals. Arizona was without quarterback Kyler Murray for that game but still managed to beat the 49ers by two touchdowns. After one of the most disappointing performances in the NFL this season, the Niners will look to bounce back as they play a division opponent at home for the second straight week.

San Francisco will look to have a better offensive game than it did last week in order to win this game. Putting up 17 points in a game is bad against most opponents, even teams that are playing well like the Cardinals. But it was that kind of anemic offensive performance against a team that was so clearly compromised offensively that made last week especially disappointing for the 49ers.

Keys to the Game

A big key to this game for the Rams will be how well they are able to integrate their new pieces into the fold. Von Miller could play his first game as a Ram this week, while Odell Beckham is likely to have to wait until at least next week. But it will be interesting to see how Miller interacts with a defensive line that has been led by Aaron Donald for years now and how those two play alongside each other.

For the 49ers, slowing down opposing running backs will be a key to this game. The Niners let Cardinals running back James Conner have a field day against them last week, with Conner getting into the end zone multiple times. While the running game isn’t the Rams’ greatest strength, San Francisco will need to be better at slowing down backs than they were a week ago.