Rams vs 49ers betting trends, odds, over/under and prediction | NFL Week 15

The NFC West is the tightest division in football with all four teams still in the race to win the division. Week 15 kicks off with a huge divisional matchup between two eternal rivals that have been the cream of the crop in the NFC over the last few years. It’s the Los Angeles Rams taking on the San Francisco 49ers in a do or die game from Levi’s Stadium.

Match up

These two teams have represented the NFC in four of the last six Super Bowls, but this year both teams are just trying to reach the postseason after dealing with a long list of injuries. The Rams, though, are getting healthy at the right time and they showed just how dangerous they can be last week when Matthew Stafford has a full arsenal of weapons surrounding him. Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp missed a handful of games early this year, and the Rams sunk to 1-4 to start the season. Since they came back in a prime time game against the Minnesota Vikings, this has been a different team. They have won six of their last eight and are coming off of their most impressive win against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon. This team has shown they can hang with the top teams in the league when healthy. They took Detroit to overtime in Week 1 and their win over the Bills tells you this team might just be hitting their stride at the perfect moment of the season. They control their own destiny, and if they win out they will win the division, but that starts with a win on Thursday.

The 49ers have been the reference in the NFC for the last half decade, going to the Conference Championship in four of the last five years but there might be signs that their era of dominance might be coming to an end. They have been dealing with injuries since before the season kicked off in early September. Christian McCaffery missed the first half of the season and now has been put back on injured reserve, with the possibility of missing the entire rest of the season depending on how his PCL sprain develops. The Niners will be without McCaffery, and come into Week 15 at the bottom of the NFC West standings, but they are just two games behind the Seattle Seahawks and they are coming off of their first dominant performance of the season. The defense looked like the defense that was the back bone of this team for the last few years, and Brock Purdy had a 300 yard game as the Niners rolled to a 38-13 win over the Chicago Bears. San Fran has no margin for error, and they will know that heading into this season defining rivalry game on Thursday night.

These two division rivals go way back to the 1950’s, and it has been a pretty tight historical series in the 151 games between them. The Niners lead the all time series 78-70-3 having won seven of the last ten, but the Rams have gotten the better of San Fran in the last two games. In their meeting earlier this year, Los Angeles rallied from a double digit deficit in the fourth quarter and won the Week 3 game on a Joshua Karty game winning field goal with two seconds on the clock.

Odds, spread, Over/Under

The Niners are back home for a second straight week and even though they will be without their star running back, Christian McCaffery, they are still a 2.5 favorite coming into this huge NFC West matchup, and the Over/Under is set at 49.

Prediction

These rivalry games are always close to call, but I must say I was surprised to see the Rams as an underdog. After their win against the Bills last week, and with Nacua and Kupp healthy I think they have more weapons on the offensive end. If the Niners don’t have Joey Bosa, which looks like a real possibility, Stafford is going to have plenty of time to find his receivers and that could be a real problem for San Fran. The Niners know they can’t lose this game, but they have failed to show that champion resolve that they have been capable of showing over the last few years.

Rams win 24-17.