Aaron Rodgers, Packers live home underdogs to Rams
Aaron Rodgers put his bare foot in front of the camera Wednesday to show that he has a fractured pinkie toe and not “COVID toe,” which he joked about Tuesday during his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
Rodgers said that he suffered the injury during workouts at home during his 10-day quarantine earlier this month.
The toe didn’t stop the reigning NFL MVP from throwing for 385 yards and four touchdowns in last week’s 34-31 loss at Minnesota.
The Packers are 2-point home underdogs to the Rams on Sunday at Lambeau Field, where Green Bay beat Los Angeles 32-18 in a wild-card playoff game in January.
The weather forecast calls for snow in Green Bay on Saturday and a high of 34 degrees on Sunday. The warm-weather Rams played like a different team in the cold weather of Wisconsin in the playoffs and enter on a two-game losing streak after falling 28-16 to the Titans and 31-10 to the 49ers before their bye.
The Packers had covered nine straight games this season before losing to the Vikings. Green Bay has won six of the last seven meetings with LA while going 7-0 ATS. It has won and covered all four home games this season, allowing an average of 11 points behind the NFL’s No. 5 scoring defense, which allows only 19.5 ppg.
I’ll take the points with Rodgers and back the Pack.
Here are four more plays (home team in CAPS):
■ PATRIOTS (-7) over Titans: This line has soared from -5 earlier this week after injury-ravaged Tennessee lost 22-13 to the lowly Texans and wide receiver A.J. Brown was ruled out of the game, joining fellow wideout Julio Jones and star running back Derrick Henry on the sidelines. New England is locked in, having won and covered five straight. Coach Bill Belichick has had extra time to prepare for this revenge game against Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel after a 25-0 shutout of Atlanta on “Thursday Night Football.” Vrabel, a former Patriots linebacker, followed Belichick’s lead in using a loophole in the rules to run crucial time off the clock in the Titans’ 2019 wild-card playoff win in New England in Tom Brady’s final game for the Patriots. New England has the NFL’s No. 1 scoring defense (16.1 ppg).
■ Eagles (-3½) over GIANTS: New York is 25th in the league in scoring (18.9 ppg) and fired offensive coordinator Jason Garrett this week after an embarrassing 30-10 loss at Tampa Bay, where it finished with season lows in points, yards and time of possession. The Eagles have won and covered three of their last four games and have the NFL’s No. 8 scoring offense (27 ppg) behind QB Jalen Hurts.
■ Buccaneers (-3) over COLTS: Tampa Bay got back on track after two straight losses with a dominant win over the Giants on Monday night. Tom Brady has a 15-4 career record against the Colts, who are coming off a beatdown of the Bills in which running back Jonathan Taylor had five TDs. The Bucs get defensive tackle Vita Vea back on their NFL-best rushing defense, which allows only 78.4 yards per game. The Colts (6-5) are 0-5 when they rush for fewer than 125 yards.
■ 49ERS (-3) over Vikings: The Niners have hit their stride with back-to-back 20-point wins over the Rams and Jaguars behind a strong running game and defense, and solid play from QB Jimmy Garoppolo. Defensive end Nick Bosa has a career-high 10 sacks, including five in the past four games, for the league’s No. 9 scoring defense (22.2 ppga).
Last week: 2-3
Season: 28-27
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.
