Austin Davis expected to start, Shaun Hill game-time decision

St. Louis Rams quarterback Shaun Hill suffered a thigh injury in the team’s Week 1 blowout loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and backup Austin Davis promptly came in and outplayed Hill despite throwing an interception. Hill seemed to be healthy enough to push it in Week 2, but the Rams always planned on handing the start to Davis against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Davis helped lead the Rams to victory over the Bucs by playing a controlled game, and he’s doing an efficient job of leading a running offense in the game manager role.

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ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that Davis is expected to start for the second straight week, and he will be facing a soft Dallas Cowboys defense that could be without surprise linebacker Rolando McClain, who is not expected to play this week. Schefter adds that Hill will test out his thigh before the game and is thus a game-time decision, with the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport confirming this report.

Davis has completed an excellent 73.1% of his passes so far this season and is averaging 8.2 yards per attempt, but he has yet to throw a touchdown pass to help make his lone interception stand out less on his stat sheet. Despite Davis’s accurate passing, some believe that Hill is the superior player and deserves to start, so this has the makings of an ongoing battle if Davis falters today against the Cowboys (given the Cowboys lack of talent on defense, I don’t expect that to happen).