Last week, two guys who didn’t take a handoff all year had over 120 yards. Can the ground game keep going in Dallas?
The Los Angeles Rams (+6) are entering the first game of a two game road trip before the bye week. They take on the 4-2 Dallas Cowboys (-6) this Sunday who are coming off a bye week. The Rams are current six point underdogs on DraftKings Sportsbook. After a heartbreaking defeat to the Steelers last Sunday, the Rams are once again looking to get back to .500 on the season.
Here are some of the prop bets you can find at DraftKings Sportsbook for the game.
Darrell Henderson, Anytime TD scorer
Last week, Darrell Henderson had his first action in a year and made the most of it. We took the anytime touchdown and Henderson found paydirt for the only Rams red zone score of the game. In that game, Sean McVay gave Henderson 18 carries which is the third most of his career.
Henderson’s numbers inside the 10 are very solid as he has 13 touchdowns on 45 carries and four receptions on seven targets for two touchdowns. The Rams have struggled passing the ball in the red area and McVay has had to lean on the ground game. Henderson has a shot this week to go back to back weeks for a touchdown. The good thing with this play is that it’s currently at +190 odds which is pretty solid considering he started last week.
Darrell Henderson, over/under 43.5 rushing yards
The Cowboys are currently allowing the 15th most rushing yards per game on the year and they are allowing 0.7 rushing touchdowns per game to boot. The Rams have run the ball well over the last three games they average the sixth-most yards per carry and they are 11th in rushing. While McVay will deviate from the run, it’s worth noting that the Rams did run the ball 30 times last week with two running backs including Henderson who had not received an offensive snap until then.
Henderson found his way over 60 yards last week and that was against a stacked defensive front 16.67 percent of the time according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Not to mention Henderson did that five days after signing with the team. He should be a bit more acclimated here in week eight considering he gets a full week of preparation and already has some carries under his belt in 2023.
I’m definitely taking the over as I suspect the Rams will have to run the ball to protect Matthew Stafford who is dealing with a hip issue and mitigate an elite Dallas pass rush.
Cooper Kupp, over/under 85.5 receiving yards
Last week was very unlike Cooper Kupp. He had two drops and only caught two passes for 28 yards. You just aren’t going to see many games like that from him. This week, it would be shocking if he didn’t bounce back here. The Rams star receiver came off the IR for week five and had back to back 100 yard games and at least seven receptions in each game. Kupp is going over this total.
The Cowboys have a good secondary but you can throw on them and at the very least you can beat them with the underneath throws and that’s something I expect the Rams to do with the quick passing game is get Kupp going underneath. I think we see another 100-plus yard game out of Kupp this time around.
Tutu Atwell, over/under 23.5 receiving yards
Last year Tutu Atwell got behind the Dallas Cowboys secondary for his first ever NFL reception that went for 54 yards. The Cowboys know and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn knows what Atwell can do. To this point in the season Atwell has gone for 340 yards, a team leading three touchdowns on 26 receptions.
The Rams have been using him as more of a clear-out receiver to open up space for rookie sensation Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp but I suspect as Nacua puts more tape out there teams will start to adjust and it might come as early as this week. Nacua is off to a historic start and defenses are going to start to key in on him. I think this gives Atwell an opportunity here.
Atwell’s prop total has been around the 30.5 range since Cooper Kupp came back but Atwell at 23.5 receiving yards? I love it. Atwell has only missed this total once this season back in week 5 with the Eagles but he’s hit this six out of seven times. This seems like a big overreaction to his lack of targets as of late. However, Atwell has gone over this total on just one explosive play in four different games this year. Trust that Atwell will go for at least 24 in this game if not much more.