Looking to improve their record this season to 9-1, the Arizona Cardinals will square off with the Carolina Panthers in Week 10.
While the Arizona Cardinals find themselves heavy favorites in their Week 10 matchup, they should not get too far ahead of themselves. In 2020, the Carolina Panthers were in Year 1 of their rebuilding effort, and the Cardinals visited Charlotte only to come away with suffering a blowout loss.
In 2021, things are different, with the 8-1 Cardinals facing a Panthers team with such a bleak quarterback situation, they went out and brought back former franchise quarterback Cam Newton. Newton won’t play on Sunday since he has not played for the Matt Rhule regime.
The Panthers will instead turn to the fringe P.J. Walker, who has a career passer rating of 42.0. But, this is where the Cardinals like to make things interesting. Three times in 2021, they have struggled in games against fringe or young quarterbacks like Trey Lance, Trevor Lawrence, and Davis Mills.
The Cardinals won all of those games, and they should, at least on paper, dominate against Carolina. Here are three bold predictions.
Conner dominates Carolina
Kyler Murray‘s status for Sunday remains up in the air, so let’s assume Colt McCoy is in the driver’s seat. Chase Edmonds will miss some time, and so far, James Conner has proven to be the better back in 2021, rushing for 454 yards and 10 touchdowns. His 3.9 yards per carry remains meager, but over the last four games, Conner has averaged 4.4 yards per carry or better, meaning he has found his groove.
The Panthers also have the third-best total passing defense in football, meaning they may make life tougher for Colt McCoy in Week 10 than he had it in Week 9 when he carved up the San Francisco 49ers’ defense. The Panthers’ rushing defense ranks 20th, and they have given up 4.3 yards per carry in 2021.
Also, Eno Benjamin made strides as a solid RB2 after Edmonds went down. Benjamin had a great preseason, and I thought it was only a matter of time before he would get a chance to show his stuff when the games counted.
Cardinals pick off Walker three times
With one interception going for a pick-six. The Cardinals only have seven interceptions all season, but Walker has yet to show flashes, having completed 21.4 percent of his passes in his only burst of extended playing time against the New York Giants in Week 7.
Walker won his only start in 2020, having completed 70 percent of his passes for 258 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions. Not bad numbers, but the lone start came against the lowly Detroit Lions. Walker also saw extended action against the New Orleans Saints in a 33-7 loss in Week 17.
Sunday will be Walker’s first time playing against a top-tier defense that the Cardinals have repeatedly shown they are throughout the season. The Cardinals also have one of the league’s better pass rushes, currently fourth in the league with 25 sacks. Look for the pass rush to force Walker into several poor situations and for the defense to take advantage.
Jones logs three sacks
Last week, Markus Golden pulled off the hat trick for three sacks. Also, last week, I predicted Jones would get back on track, and he did, posting three combined tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss, and two quarterback hits.
This week, Jones ups the ante and logs a hat trick of his own in sacks. Jones stole the show in Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans, logging five sacks in a legendary performance. He fell off the map over the next two months and missed two weeks because of positive COVID-19 tests.
Opponents have sacked Panthers’ quarterbacks 25 times this season, which equals 2.77 sacks per game. This gives Jones the perfect situational opportunity to record multiple sacks for the first time since September.
Look for the Cardinals to blitz often, given the combined poor offensive line play from the Panthers and the second career start from the fringe Walker. While Jones has not had the same impact in 2021 as Golden, look for the Panthers to key on the hotter of the two pass rushers, leaving Jones plenty of opportunities.