NFL Week 16 kicks off with an exciting Thursday Night Football match-up as Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and the Los Angeles Rams host Alvin Kamara and the New Orleans Saints. Both teams are 7-7 and both are in contention for one of the NFC wild card spots. While the Rams are going to have to settle for a wild card to make it into the playoffs, the Saints are currently tied for the NFC South division lead and could vault their way into the playoffs with an important win here. But how do we bet this game? If you’re setting up your NFL Week 16 picks against the spread for a pool or just betting the game on its own, there are some interesting angles to take and player props to consider. Here is a look at how I see things shaking out on Thursday night.

 

 

NFL Week 16 Thursday Night Football Best Bets: New Orleans Saints vs Los Angeles Rams

The Spread: Rams -4

Everything about the set-up to this game screams take the Rams and lay the points, doesn’t it? They’re 8-5-1 against the spread this season while the Saints are 4-9-1 ATS. The Saints are traveling across a couple of time zones on a Thursday and if you look at their schedule, they haven’t really beaten any sort of a formidable opponent. Their run defense was getting punished in recent weeks but games against the Panthers and Giants stopped the bleeding, but for how long? Meanwhile, the Rams look great, winning four of their last five games and is getting premium performances from Stafford, Kupp and especially Kyren Williams who should thrive against the Saints run defense. As for the passing attack, the Rams are now getting a Saints team that does well in man coverage but only plays it 36.6-percent of the time. We know Stafford can carve up the zone coverage and you’d be hard-pressed to see anyone stifle Kupp in man-coverage. But my paranoia as a contrarian bettor isn’t letting me take the Rams and just laying the four, so instead, I’ll look at an at-spread for this game and pay a little extra to knock it down a half-point.

Pick: Rams -3.5 (and pay the extra juice at -120)

The Total: 46

While I have little trouble seeing the Rams score some points in this one, I am not really bullish on the Saints offense. Chris Olave is making his way back from injury, but every time the Saints get inside the red zone, Dennis Allen and Pete Carmichael lose their minds and try way too much gimmicky crap for my liking and that tends to leave points on the board. I also think that if the Rams go up, they won’t have issues with just letting Williams and Royce Freeman kill the clock. If you’re looking for supportive data, the under is 8-6 in Rams games this season and 10-4 in Saints games.

Pick: under 46 (-110)

Favorite Thursday Night Football Player Props:

**all lines & odds courtesy of BetMGM