Sam Bradford isn’t as perfect as he was in Denver, and neither the St. Louis Rams nor the Arizona Cardinals can stop the running game. The end result is a 9-6 lead for the Rams in a game that, for all its ugliness, could help to decide the NFC West.
Bradford is 10-for-19 for 91 yards a week after his career performance against the Broncos, and Derek Anderson, who’s trying to keep his job after Laughgate and a season of ineffectiveness, is 7-for-16 with 93 yards and an interception. But it’s the running backs who’ve driven the offense so far. Steven Jackson has 10 carries for 46 yards and a reception for 13 more; for the Cardinals Tim Hightower has nine carries for 67 yards and Beanie Wells has added three for 24.
It looks like this game will go to the first team whose offense can begin firing in both facets of the game in the same drive. If the Rams can take advantage of Jackson’s solid play while bringing back the deep passes they found suddenly in last week’s game, they could pull away from the last-place Cardinals yet. With the Carolina Panthers leading the Seattle Seahawks 14-3, that could be huge.