Green Bay Packers vs. St. Louis Rams Preview: Sam Bradford’s Sophomore Slump

As good of a season as Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay are enjoying right now, Sam Bradford and the St. Louis Rams are enduring an equally terrible one.

The Rams are 0-4 and traveling to Green Bay coming off of their bye week, not exactly the way they probably would have scripted to come back after such a start. The Packers are playing out of their minds right now, showing that they can hold a lead, flat out dominate a team, or come back on the road against a playoff team.

Whatever there is to be done, you can bet Green Bay has seen it, and Rodgers has to be licking his chops at the thought of going up against a weak St. Louis secondary.

Let me be clear up front and say that I think Green Bay wins this game by two scores easily. I think they are far more talented than St. Louis, but I need to see some things out of the Rams today, specifically I need to see some things out of Sam Bradford, who is going through the “sophomore slump.”

It’s going to be tough for Bradford to get his game going until he can establish a number one receiver. Danario Alexander is currently leading the Rams in receiving, and he has only eight receptions all season. Likewise, the Rams need a lot of production out of Steven Jackson, who’s been injured this year. In his absence, Cadillac Williams leads the team in rushing, but his numbers aren’t anything to brag about.

This is a team seriously devoid of offensive talent right now, and when you combine that with a struggling Bradford, you have a recipe for disaster and a winless season.

Bradford has only one game this season where his completion percentage was over 50 percent.

One game.

For a former number one pick who was known in college for his accuracy, that’s not only unacceptable, it’s flat out horrible. Bradford is a better player than he has shown this year, and obviously he is having trouble adjusting to a lack of talented teammates as well as the Josh McDaniels offense, which is extremely complex.

What I want to see today from the Rams is a consistent pressure from their defensive front against Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers gets rid of the ball quickly, but Chris Long and Robert Quinn need to start proving why they were such highly touted prospects coming out of college. Long has developed into a fine player, and Quinn has shown flashes this year. If St. Louis has any hopes of an upset today, those guys are going to have to force Rodgers into a lot of bad throws.

Sam Bradford needs to have a huge game, and Josh McDaniels needs to tailor the gameplan so that the Rams are going “all in” so to speak. I want to see St. Louis attack the field vertically against Green Bay’s banged up safeties, and get guys like Lance Kendricks really involved in the game plan.

For Green Bay, I am looking forward to see how they play without safety Nick Collins, who was just placed on injured reserve. The Packers suffered a barrage of injuries last season and were still able to win the Super Bowl, so I don’t expect it to have a huge impact but for a defense that has already been struggling against the pass, it certainly could.

I think Green Bay takes care of business and wins this game big, but I’m hoping to see improvements from the 2010 top pick.