A Preview of the Los Angeles Rams - Carolina Panthers Week 6 Matchup; from LA Rams Up

Welcome back to Rams up, your Los Angeles Rams podcast. We're a proud member of the Pigskin podcast network. We'll cover just about any SoCal sports team, but we're mostly about your Los Angeles Rams. I'm your host, mark. Let's get to it. 

Welcome back RAM fans to Rams up your Los Angeles Rams podcast. 

The main thing will be covering this episode is of course a preview of the Rams Panthers game this Sunday at Sofi Stadium. 

We also have our Rams up straight up game picks update on how we did last week. 

And our picks for this week get through a bunch of Rams news, and I'm going to focus especially on injury. 

I could do a whole segment just on injuries, but I'll get through a bunch of information as best I can here. 

A few items of note. 

First, Jake Funk waived and picked up by the Saints. 

He's on the Saints practice squad, probably a direct result of the Rams bringing Malcolm Brown back. 

Everybody got its chance. 

Of the Rams, except in the preseason. 

But Jake Funk is out. 

Malcolm Brown is in. 

What happened here, I think Rob Havenstein apparently called a meeting for the offensive lineman trying to get their act together. 

These meetings like this, I guess it's a good thing, but it's kind of a bummer that it's even necessary, right? 

But hopefully they get things straightened out. 

That unit has not played well, but man, they have been through so much. 

So many different lineups, but. 

They've given up 84. 

Pressures over the first five weeks, the most ever by a RAM. 

Team so hey, if Armenians going to get this thing fixed, I have a feeling we're going to see a shake up on the starting lineup there at the offensive line. As of Wednesday, Mcvay's and even sure who the starting left guard and center will be. 

There's some candidates there. 

I thought maybe O'dea Bushing would get a shot at left guard. 

Maybe Matt Skira starts at center. 

Dave Edwards definitely out. 

Jeremiah Kolone not playing that well, I guess. 

I wondered if they would maybe move noteboom to one of the guard positions he's been struggling. 

Move Jackson, the left tackle. 

He's been playing well, but he's been playing well at right guard, so I imagine they'll leave him there. 

Just devastation along that offensive line. 

We'll see what they come up with this week. 

So let's run through all these injuries over the course of this short season and try to get you updated as best we can. 

I'll save the secondary and the offensive line for last as well as. 

The practice report the injury report from this Wednesday's practice. We'll. 

Start with Van Jefferson #2 wide receiver hasn't played all year. 

Rams have really missed him, especially with Allen Robinson struggling. 

He will be eligible to return for the 40 Niner game. 

Hopefully he will. 

Karen Lyons, the rookie running back Rams seemed to really be excited about him, and then he got hurt on his first snap on special teams in the opener. 

He could potentially return for the 40 niner game. 

We really don't know if that's going to happen. 

But he possibly? 

Could very little news on him coming out of Rams camp. 

Daniel Hardy, the rookie defensive end hasn't played all year. He can return. No update on his injury either. I'm guessing that if they brought Hardy back, maybe that would be the end of takk Mckinley's time with the Rams. Bryson Hopkins, the number 2 tight end. He is returning for the Carolina game. He missed three games. 

Due to suspension, not sure how much he's going to see the field. I mean, Kendall Blanton's been getting out there, getting used very little though. 

But Hopkins is a better blocker, and Higbee banged up. 

We'll talk about that in a minute, so maybe it's a timely return for Hopkins. 

He can help along the offensive line in the run game and we know he's a threat catching the ball. 

We saw that in the playoffs last year. 

Bobby Brown. 

He's also suspended. 

He's eligible to return after the bye. 

Now let's take. 

A look at the secondary, but let's take a look at the secondary. 

Troy Hill, starting cornerback. 

He's missed last three games. 

He could potentially come back for the 40 niner game after the bye. 

Now the next four guys all missed the cowboy game. 

Taylor Rapp, starting safety. 

He's limited in practice this week, so he could return David Long, another starter he's missed the last three games. 

And he is limited in practice, which is a good sign. 

Could come back. 

Kobe drant. He took over for long. He missed the 49er in the Cowboy game. He's limited in practice, which is an improvement. 

Maybe we'll see him back and Jordan Fuller placed on IR. 

He could come back at the earliest, the week nine game against the Bucks. 

And then Quinton link, the rookie safety, he's still recovering. 

From injury heard very little about him. 

Hasn't played all year. 

Let's get into the offensive line here. 

Brian Allen, the starting center all pro alternate last year hasn't played all year. 

And he still is not practicing. 

I'm hoping he's back after the bye for the 40 niner game. 

I think he's a guy that maybe we've missed the most. 

Coleman Shell, starting right guard, beat out Logan breasts. 

He moved to center when Brian Allen got hurt, and now he's on IR. 

He could come back week 11 versus the Saints, but I don't have a good feeling about. 

May not see him the rest of the year and David Edwards, our starting left guard, missed. 

One game due. 

To a concussion came back, may have suffered another concussion. 

That's not a good sign, especially what we saw with Tua. 

For Edwards and his family sake, hopefully he stays out until he feels like he's good. 

And ready to go. 

That could be awhile, though. 

And don't forget Tremaine ankrom. 

He took over for Shelton when Shelton moved to center to take over for Allen, and he's out for the year. 

And then of course, Logan Press mentioned him briefly, our top draft pick taken in the second round, and he's out all year as well, so. 

That is the situation along our offensive line. 

Who knows what they're going to throw out there on Sunday. 

Nobume returning at left tackle, I assume, even though he struggled. 

Alaric Jackson and Rob Havenstein, those two guys have played well on the right side. 

They probably don't want to mess with that. 

But what do they? 

Do I suspect it might be a bushy and skira getting thrown out there? 

Or maybe Bobby Evans? 

Two of those three would be my guess. 

Other notes from the practice report this week, and this is even more troubling. 

Cooper Kupp, Tyler Higbee and Aaron Donald all not practicing on Wednesday. 

And either was Brandon Powell. 

Now my special assistant texted me the moment Cooper Kupp came off the field after that long touchdown run. 

And noticed how he was favoring that foot even though it came back. 

And same thing with a D we noticed him having issues with his foot. 

They were clearly hurt during the game but came back in still kind of odd. 

We didn't really hear anything about it. 

At least we didn't until this practice report that came out late Wednesday higby's. 

Issue is an ankle, apparently in Brandon Powell, an issue with his hip. 

Now, on the Saints side, Jaycee horn, their talented cornerback, did not practice, so he's at risk of missing this game. 

Or it's a big part of what they do on defense. 

So that would be a big blow to the Saints. 

So I'll be eagerly awaiting the Thursday and Friday practice reports for an indication of any of these. 

Guys are really at risk of not playing, especially Cupp, Higbee and Aaron Donald. 

I have never seen a Rams team go through so many injuries in such a short amount of time. 

If they can just get through this Carolina game with a win and get healthy over that bye week. 

Oh, isn't this a great time for a bye? Need it badly prior to this rematch with the 49ers. Get some guys healthy, please. 

We'll be back. 

In a minute with our preview of the RAM Panther game, followed by our Rams up straight up game picks. 

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Let's take a look at this week six game at the Carolina Panthers visiting so far to take on our Los Angeles Rams. 

Series record Carolina actually holds the edge here at 13 wins, nine loss. 

This last time they played the 2019 season opener, the Rams 130 to 27. Malcolm Brown, of all people, rushed for two TD's in that game. 

Hey, or repeat performance would be just what the doctor ordered for this struggling Rams offense. 

Memorable games? 

Not a good memory. 

10th 2004 in overtime, the Panthers in the Rams season in the playoffs. 

29 to 23 that was the 69 yard pass to Steve Smith. He beats Jason Sehorn for the long touchdown and the Rams are done. 

Marc Bulger threw for 332 yards in that game, 3 interceptions. That was the year Carolina went on. 

To lose the Super Bowl. 

If the. 

Had won that game, they might have been right there. 

You could even say that play. 

To Steve Smith, ended the greatest show on turf. 

I could be wrong on that, but that's one way of looking at. 

The Panthers were coached by Matt Rhule. 

Until Monday morning, that is. 

He was fired after the one in four start, replaced by Steve Wilks, who was three and 13, a so Cardinals coach in 2018. 

They also fired their defensive coordinator, Phil Snow Baker Mayfield out for this game. 

Sam Darnold isn't ready to go, so the quarterback will be PJ Walker. 

A dynamic player, but his stats are not overwhelming, that's for sure. 

73 completions in 128 attempts on his career 57% completion rate for 790 yards. 

Two TDs and eight interceptions, and he is a threat with his legs, but it hasn't really come to fruition in the NFL. 

12 rushes for 11 yards. 

And four fumble. 

Key players on this team? 

Well, we won't talk about Baker Mayfield, obviously. 

Christian McCaffrey, when he's healthy, dynamic running back, possibly on the trading block as we speak. 

Could Durants be interested? 

Well, they need guys to block for him first, I think. 

Their top two receivers, Robby Anderson and DJ Moore. 

Now a lot of people would tell you, hey, DJ Moore is their best receiver, and he probably is. 

A lot of insiders thinking he may be on the trading block. 

He's that good, but he's really struggled hooking up with Baker may. 

Field 17 receptions on 37 targets for 197 yards. Anderson actually has more yardage at this point, 206, but DJ Moore is a very dangerous wide receiver. 

Two really good defensive backs, Jaycee horn and its savior woods. 

Woods missed last week, though. 

And Ed Ruscha, Brian burns. 

Very dangerous for sacks. 

I would be tempted to say the Rams are in pretty good shape as far as quarterback protection in this game. 

Just take care of Brian Burns. 

But based on the last two games. 

Not going to go there. 

Rams need to patch things up. 

And protect Stafford and Brian Burns will be the first order of business. 

We already talked about Baker Mayfield and Xavier Woods trying to get healthy. 

We know about the Rams injuries. 

There's just too many to talk about at a YouTube video the other night addressing that. 

Quite a list. 

It Rams haven't had to deal with this for a long time, but injuries certainly impact this game. 

More salt from the rents perspective. 

Then the Panthers, although they are starting a third string quarterback, so we can't whine too much about injuries. Carolina is 2022 draft picks, one worth mentioning. 

Offensive tackle after North Carolina State decay Mequon. 

Oh, and he is starting on the left side for them. 

They also drafted Matt Corral, de quarterback out of Ole Miss. 

Ram connections. 

There's a few Austin Corbett, the guard. 

Johnny Hekker all Betty the punter lately have a trick play in store for us just for old time sake and Corey Littleton playing linebacker for them. 

Did not have a good experience in Oakland and he's moved on to the Panthers and of course out of USC. 

Sam Darnold, Socal connection their team stats offensively they are last in the league period and defensively 3rd 13th in yards given up per game 356. 

So obviously the Rams defense versus Panther offense is a big advantage because the Rams defense has actually been playing pretty well. 

Odds opened up at 99 and 1/2. They're up to 11 last I looked, Panthers killing one of four, Rams two and three. 

Hey, what if the Panthers done this year? 

They opened up with a 2 point loss to the Browns at home. 

Then they lost to the Giants by three. The Saints. They beat the Saints by 8, their lone win. And then they had two straight losses to our NFC buddies, the Cardinals and the 49ers. Let's get right into my fearsome. 

4 keys to the game for some key number one hey, our offensive line has to show up and play average. 

That's all. 

Just average. 

Maybe keep the sack total under 4. 

Can we maybe just give up two sacks? 

Give Matthew Stafford some time. 

Then allow our vertical threats to get down the field a little bit. Maybe open up some running holes for Darrell Henderson, Cam Akers, Malcolm Brown, perhaps fearsome Key #2. 

Just don't give away any free points. 

No more of these devastating blunders, Matthew. 

If you get sacked, hang onto the ball. 

Let's block on punts. 

No pick sixes. 

There's no devastating players. 

Just play a. 

Fairly clean game? How about that for some key #3, let's take advantage of our red zone opportunities. I don't feel real confident that's going to happen from what I've seen so far, but we need to. 

We need to be efficient in the red zone. Let's put seven on the board instead of three. How about that and fearsome king #4? 

How about some takeaways by our defense? 

Just one two would be great. 

Everybody getting any takeaways really makes it tough on our offense. 

As much as they've been struggling, defense has been playing great. 

The only knock on them need more takeaways. 

Now those are my fearsome 4 keys, but really it comes down to one thing just no crazy blunders, no devastating plays. 

If we play a semi clean game in that regard, we'll beat this team pretty handily I think. 

There's other things, offensive line play, red zone opportunities and takeaways on defense. 

Those are things that we want to see happen every week moving forward and improvement in those areas. 

But we can beat the Panthers just by playing a clean game with no devastating plays like we've seen in the last two weeks. 

My prediction? I'm going to go with the Rams 26, the Panthers 10. Panther is going to have a real difficult time scoring, especially if we play a clean game with no devastating plays. 

Not real confident about a redzone success. That's why I have that odd 26 total for us. 2 touchdowns, 4 field goals. 

But that'll be plenty to beat the Carolina Panthers 26 to 10. 

Second, let's get into our ramps up straight up game picks for week six. 

But first I look back at week five. 

Lorenzo, Mike and I all did pretty well. 

I was eleven and five, Mike and Lorenzo 12 and. 

For Pete, not a good outing for him. 10 correct and six wrong. So where does that leave us, Mike? Leading the pack with 50 correct and 30 wrong, Lorenzo right behind him, 49 and 31. 

I'm one back of Lorenzo 48 and 32, and Pete 4, back of me 44 and 36. 

Would hurt me this week. 

I was the only one that took the Panther. 

And I also took the lions that hurt. 

And I'm done with that. 

No more lions picks for me. 

I've learned my lesson this week. 

A handful of difficult games. 

The first one, the commanders at the Bears 2 bottom feeders, right? 

I'm going to take Justin Fields and the Bears at home to get it. 

Done the 49ers at the Falcons. Now. I was going back and forth on this one. 49ers really banged up. 

Jimmie Ward out. 

Nick Bosa possibly out. 

Manual Moseley out for probably the year. 

They got to go across the country to play the Atlanta Falcons, you know? 

Screw it, I'm taking the Falcons. 

Patriots at the Browns. 

Browns up and down at Patriots. 

Steady as she goes. 

But I'm going to take the Browns to win this one. 

Jets at the Packers. 

These teams are closer than you think. 

The Jets are capable of beating the better teams in this league right now. 

They just have to get their footing, get used to winning. 

But I'm going to take the Packers at home the next one of the tougher games to pick the Jaguars at the Colts, I've been pumping up the Jags, but they lost the Texans last week. 

I was the only one that picked the Colts over the Broncos. 

And I'm going to roll the Colts again at home. 

You know, games like this, divisional rivals important game. 

I'll roll with the Colts. 

I could very easily get this one wrong. 

Vikings at the Dolphins. 

This is a good game, interesting game. 

Teams that don't play each other real often. 

Dolphins coming off a bad loss. 

Tua is out. 

His backup, Teddy Bridgewater, is out. 

The Dolphins right now might be missing Tron Armstead, their offensive tackle and linebacker Melvin Ingram and running back Raheem Mostert. 

But the main thing is a rookie quarterback, Skylar Thompson out of Kansas State, taking the home for at least one week. 

I think I'm going to roll with the Vikings, Bengals at the Saints. 

Saints hammered the Seahawks defense. 

Bengals a much more balanced team. 

They need to win badly. 

They're two and three hoping to get back to the playoffs. 

Saints are still in the hunt, but I don't think they really have hope. 

Of doing any damage long term, regular season or playoffs. 

I'll take the Bengals, Ravens at the Giants. 

Giants are playing some really good football, but the Ravens will be too much for them. 

Buccaneers at the Steelers. 

I'll take the bucks. 

The Steelers are reeling. 

The Bucs are overrated. 

At least I think. 

People still have the Buccaneers rated highly. 

I don't, but they're good enough to beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh. 

Panthers at the Rams Rams will get healthy in this game. 

Their offensive line will have some semblance of order and the Rams get the win. 

Cardinals at the Seahawks another divisional game. 

You know that Seahawk defense is starting to show their holes. 

I I think the Cardinals win this. 

One this is a tough one to pick, but I'll go with the Cardinals bills at the cheats. 

I'll take the home team. 

This is a really big game with playoff ramifications, number one seed possibly at stake down the road. 

This is a rematch of that playoff game last year, right? 

The overtime game. 

Bills really have something to prove. 

But I'm going to take the chiefs. 

Cowboys at the Eagles I'm going to take the Eagles. 

I'm not sure who's going to play quarterback for the Cowboys. 

Could be DAC, could be rush. Is DAC going to be 100%? Is it going to be in a groove against a good Eagles defense if he does play? Yeah, I'm going to go with the Eagles and Broncos at the Chargers. 

Chargers are clearly the better team, the better quarterback. 

Chargers take that one. 

So that's my Rams up straight up game picks. 

Pretty tight at the top. 

Lorenzo, Mike and I all within two games of each other. 

Pete bringing up the rear wheel. 

Check in a week from now and see how we did. 

It's going to do it for this episode. Remember, you can reach us at Rams up podcast@gmail.com. 

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