The St. Louis Rams might not have scored a single touchdown last week to open up their preseason, but they have an interesting trend on their side when they take on the Tennessee Titans in Week 2.
QUARTERBACK ROTATION
Marcus Mariota is going to start this game off and will likely play a full quarter for the Titans to keep the hometown crowd interested in the proceedings. Beyond that, we'll probably see Zach Mettenberger for a quarter, perhaps a bit more, and at that point, Charlie Whitehurst and/or Alex Tanney will mop up the game.
Jeff Fisher has a history of being conservative with his starting quarterback in the preseason, and that means Nick Foles might only have one drive in him.
That said, there's a real good battle right now for the backup spot in St. Louis, which is why Sean Mannion might actually get second-team reps instead of Case Keenum this week.
WHEN TENNESSEE HAS THE BALL
The raw stats suggest that Mariota had a solid first game as a member of the Titans. He went 7-for-8 for 94 yards, but he fumbled once and was picked off. The rookie held the ball far too long at times, and his decision-making was often very conservative and uninventive. Now, he has to go up against one of the best defensive lines in the league, one which will be hungry to get to the quarterback after not logging one sack last week. Live bettors should take note right at the start of this game that the Rams could be a live underdog.
The Titans don't really have the ability to open their offense up, but Ken Whisenhunt did a real nice job last week of putting his quarterbacks in a position to succeed. Mariota, Mettenberger, Whitehurst and Tanney combined to go 23-for-27 passing.
WHEN ST. LOUIS HAS THE BALL
The Rams just have to run the ball better than they did last week if they want to get into the end zone for the first time. Tavon Austin had a 35-yard play on the opening drive of the game, but take that away, and there was nothing there for this offense. Running backs combined for 20 carries and 70 yards.
Last week, the Titans held the Falcons to just a total of 69 yards on the ground on 32 rushes.
Then again, keep in mind that the Rams are projecting out two starting rookies along their offensive line in Jamon Brown and Rob Havenstein, and there are six other rookies as well in this mix to try to earn jobs on the roster. Things will improve in due time in St. Louis along the offensive front, but live bettors have to expect a lot of drives which start with a run continuing at 2nd and 8 or so as well for the time being.
TREND TO TRACK
Whisenhunt is only 10-20 SU and 9-20-1 ATS here in the preseason in his career, and he actually has a losing record in each individual week of the campaign in his coaching tenures in Tennessee and Arizona.
In fairness to Whisenhunt though, he really has never had the ideal quarterback setup for the preseason. He had Kurt Warner for a while in Arizona, a man he didn't need to have play much in the preseason, and now, he is dealing with a rookie in Mariota who needs the reps, but still has that "deer in the headlights" look to him.
It might not be Whisenhunt's fault, but facts are facts, and the Titans and live bettors can't get away from that.
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