MNF: Packers vs Rams Prediction and Game Thread

Monday Night Football, Week 14. Tonight we have the Green Bay Packers hosting the Los Angeles Rams in a game the Packers desperately need to keep their slim playoff hopes alive for another week.

Before this season started this game must have looked like a surefire blockbuster event for Monday Night Football. Two perennial Super Bowl contenders duking it out for NFC supremacy. Ah, but the football gods are fickle. Matthew Stafford and Aaron Rodgers were never right this season, Stafford is now out for the year, and we are left with two bottom feeding teams with the faintest of playoff hopes. In truth, the Rams’ hopes are so faint as to be nearly undetectable.

The 5-8 Green Bay Packers come into this game losers of seven of their last nine games after getting off to a 3-1 start to the season. Aaron Rodgers has played most of the season injured and it shows, as the Packers’ offense has sunk into mediocrity. However, the emergence of rookie receiver Christian Watson recently has breathed new life into the Packers’ moribund attack, and they have averaged more than 27 points per game over the last four weeks. If the Packers can sustain that kind of offensive production over the final four games of the season it is possible they may yet sneak into the post-season, though a tough closing schedule makes that extremely unlikely.

The 4-9 Los Angeles Rams, like the Packers, have had to play most of the season with an injured starting quarterback. Unlike the Packers’ Rodgers, Matthew Stafford could not keep playing, and he is now out for the rest of the year. The Rams come into this game off a win over the Las Vegas Raiders after losing eight of the prior nine games. The Rams have scored 20 points or less in 10 out of 13 games this season. That’s no way to win football games. If the Rams can’t get more going on offense tonight the Packers should be able to hold serve at home.

The Packers have won four of the last five meetings between these two teams. I expect more of the same tonight. I’m taking the Packers to win at home here. I have submitted my pick using the widget from our partners at Tallysight. You can follow all my picks throughout the season, as I prove for another season how I’m not made to be a gambler. Seriously, I cannot stress enough how bad an idea it would be to bet real money based on my picks. Don’t do it. Don’t even consider it. Make your own picks, and good luck. And if you do bet, consider using our friends at DraftKings Sportsbook.