The St. Louis Rams opened their preseason with an ugly 34-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans, while the San Diego Chargers topped the Dallas Cowboys 31-17, but as oftentimes happens in preseason, look for a couple of flip-flop performances here.

The Rams will be anxious to improve on that dreadful performance, especially in front of their home fans. In fact, Week 2 teams coming off of a straight up loss are 72-50-3, 59.0 percent against the spread since 2000, while Week 2 teams coming off of a win are 52-74-1 ATS for a nice 58.7 percent fade.

The Rams are expected to give quarterback Marc Bulger extensive playing time this week, meaning that he will probably be passing against some San Diego reserves in the second quarter. Granted, running back Steven Jackson has yet to report to camp, but the Rams do have a quality back in Michael Pittman, and they also have some competent reserves in Travis Minor and Brian Leonard. This depth should serve them well vs. the Chargers backups in the second half.

Now San Diego got by without LT last week, but that was vs. an indifferent Dallas team that ran a vanilla offense all game. Also, in addition to Tomlinson, the Chargers will also be without Antonio Gates, Shawn Merriman and Vincent Jackson for this game,

That seems like a lot to overcome vs. a Rams team that in all likelihood actually wants to win this game to erase the memories of the Week 1 debacle.

Free Pick: Rams -3 (-110)