InSpin

New England -7 1/2 vs. St. Louis

Break up the St. Louis Rams. Are they ready to shock the world again? They can beat the Patriots on the road this Sunday and continue their shocking Cinderella story in which they started 0-4, fired their coach, shocked the Washington Redskins with a thrilling last second victory and really shocked the Dallas Cowboys with an unexpected throttling at the Edward Jones Dome last week.

Jim Haslett appears to have his Rams (2-4) thinking they can beat anyone and they will be able to put that to the test when they visit Foxboro to battle New England in a rematch of the stellar Super Bowl XXXVII matchup.

Weeks ago, the New England Patriots may have had this a week in which they could lick their wounds, go through the motions and come up with the victory, but now they have to deal with the new giant killing Rams.

The Patriots (4-2) look to establish some consistency after an inconsistent start to the season. After beginning the season at 2-0, the Pats have alternated between a loss and a win. Last week they decimated the sinking Denver Broncos 41-7 in Foxboro with an encouraging performance from Matt Cassell who threw 18 for 24 with 185 yards and three touchdowns. With Laurence Maroney now on injured reserve, the Patroits relied on backup Sammy Morris and he did not disappoint. He carried the ball 16 times for 138 yards and a touchdown. This production was all in the first half as Morris sat out the second half with an injury but is expected to play against the Rams. Other encouraging news was New England’s defense seemed to be back when they forced five Denver turnovers. The discouraging news was Rodney Harrison being place on injured reserve due to a torn thigh muscle. As Harrison was carted off the field after his injury Monday night, the 15-year fought back tears and waved to the fans and it seemed the injury will more than likely force him into retirement.

Steven Jackson appeared to return to his prior self as he ran for a season-high 160 yards with three touchdowns against the Cowboys. He also left the game early because of an injury but appears to be ready to go for Sunday.

The teams have met 10 times, with each club winning five times, including New England’s first Super Bowl 20-17 in 2002. The Patriots won the last regular season meeting as well, in 2004 in St. Louis.

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Washington -7 1/2 vs. Detroit

After dropping the opening night game to the defending champion Giants, the Redskins responded with surprising victories against New Orleans, Arizona and road games against division rivals Dallas and Philadelphia. After these four straight wins, Washington came home with the intent of rolling up a winless Rams team who had just changed coaches. Of course that is why they play the games. A late field goal gave St. Louis the 19-17 upset victory. This caused some Redskins’ players to feel they let their guard down and played down to their opponents on that day. Assuming Washington has rectified this with last week’s 14-11 victory over Cleveland last week, pity the winless Detroit Lions, this week’s opponents for the Redskins.

Jason Campbell was steady in the Browns game last week, even though the Redskins (5-2) were held scoreless in the first half. He threw 14 completions on 23 passes for 164 yards and a touchdown. Campbell did not throw an interception again which extends the NFL record of 332 passes which have not been picked off. This has greatly surpassed the old record held by the 2001 Oakland Raiders of 281. Clinton Portis ran for a season best 175 yards last week and looks to duplicate his success against a pitful Lions defense.

Sadly for Detroit (0-6), even when they play fairly well, they still find ways to lose. Two weeks ago, the defense did a stellar job against Minnesota October 12 until late when the Lions saw a 10-2 second half lead turn into a 12-10 loss with late field goal to win in the Metrodome. Last week, the Lions shot themselves in the foot like they have much of this season, but spotting their opponents to large leads and having an impromptu comeback fall just short. It happened in Atlanta, against Green Bay and last week in Houston.  The Texans got out to a 21-0 first quarter lead. Detroit fought back and scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough and the team lost 28-21 to sink to 0-6.

With Jon Kitna on injured reserve with a bad back, the team’s quarterbacking reins have been handed over to Dan Orlovsky. With the departure of Roy Williams in last week’s trade to Dallas, Calvin Johnson struggled in Houston to break double and triple coverage, but was able to make something happen when he did get the ball. The second year receiver had a season low two catches, but had a season high 154 yards largely because of 96 yards on one catch.

Detroit has been miserable against Washington. Since 1968, the Lions are 2-18 against the Washington Redskins, including postseason play. The two wins for the Lions came in back-to-back years in 1999 and 2000, both played in the Pontiac Silverdome. But those victories were sandwiched around a 27-13 Redskins victory in Washington during the 1999 playoffs. That game marked the most recent postseason game involving Detroit.

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