St. Louis Rams vs Arizona Cardinals
The St. Louis Rams make their annual trip to the desert on Sunday to face the NFC West leading Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. The last time these teams played was last December in Glendale. The Cardinals came out with a 30-10 victory.
The victory however came at cost. That was the game in which they lost safety Tyrann Mathieu for the season and he is just now getting back to being the player he was back then. The “Honey Badger” said on Monday is still not at100 percent.
In that contest, Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer went 27-32 for 269 yards and a touchdown. Receiver Larry Fitzgerald caught 12 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown in the win.
Date: Sunday November 9th, 2014
Location: Glendale, AZ
Stadium: University of Phoenix Stadium
TV Info: Fox 10 – Chris Myers (play-by-play), Ronde Barber (color analyst)
Live Stream: Watch NFL Live
Radio Info: Arizona Sports 98.7 FM – Dave Pasch (play-by-play), Ron Wolfley (color analyst), Paul Calvisi (sideline reporter), Sirius/XM 226/Internet 800 (Arizona Cardinals feed), Sirius/XM Internet 828 (St. Louis Rams feed)
Ticket Info: Arizona Cardinals click here
Keys to victory:
The Arizona Cardinals have hopefully been watching film of the St. Louis Rams. They will be no easy task. They defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-26 at home a few weeks ago and then just last Sunday, they defeated the San Francisco 49ers 13-10 at Levis Stadium. The Cardinals will need to maintain a full 60-minute focus.
Just because the Arizona Cardinals are 7-1, that won’t deter the St. Louis Rams. Going into last week they only had eight sacks all season. They had eight last week alone in their victory. The Cardinals offensive line is going to need to protect quarterback Carson Palmer to give him time to throw in the pocket.
The Cardinals got off to a slow start last week, falling behind 10-0 to the Dallas Cowboys thanks to offensive woes. Even though they are at home, not saying they can’t survive a 10-0 hole to the Rams but it is not a trend the Cardinals wish to start. Their offense showed in the second and fourth quarters last week. It needs to be a four-quarter effort.
If they can avoid sacks on offense, score touchdowns in the red zone like they did last week, they should be able to handle the Rams. Their offense tends to get in sync early but then trail off as the game goes. If they can somehow create some sort of pass rush against quarterback Austin Davis then I think that side of the ball should be just fine. As we know though, easier said than done with this team.
Betting Odds:
Point spread: Arizona -6.5
Moneyline: St. Louis +240, Arizona -285
O/U: 43
Prediction:
Arizona 27 St. Louis 16