New Orleans Saints at Arizona Cardinals

Written by Steve Janus

This Sunday the Arizona Cardinals will host the defending Super Bowl Champions, as the New Orleans Saints come to town and look to improve on their 3-1 start. The Saints needed another late comeback to secure a win last week, as new place kicker John Carney kicked a 25 yard field goal late in the fourth quarter to give the Saints a 16-14 win over the Carolina Panthers. The Cardinals were embarrassed last week against the Chargers, losing 41-10, and that led head coach Kent Whisenhunt to pull the plug on Derek Anderson, as he has named Max Hall the starter for this weeks game. The oddsmakers don’t think the change is going to help the Cardinals out much this week, as the current NFL odds have the Saints favored by 7-points over the Cardinals on the road.

New Orleans (3-1): It definitely hasn’t been pretty for the Saints so far this season, at least by the standards they set last year. The offense is really struggling to get things going, as they haven’t score 30 points in a single game all season. It’s not because of quarterback Drew Brees, who has completed nearly 74% of his passes for 1,131 yards and seven touchdown, but instead it is the Saints inability to run the football, and there is no question that the return of Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas can’t come soon enough.

The Saints defense played extremely well last week, well all but two plays where they allowed a 55 yard touchdown run by Jonathan Stewart and a 39 yard run by DeAngelo Williams. Other than those two runs, the Panthers had just 157 yards of total offense. I believe if the Saints can avoid the big plays this week against the Cardinals, they will win this game easily.

Arizona (2-2): It really says a lot about just how bad Anderson was playing for him to get benched when the team is 2-2 an tied for the NFC West division lead. Anderson completed just under 52% of his passes on the season and had just three touchdowns to five interceptions. While I think getting Anderson out of the starting lineup was the right move, I am not convinced that Hall is going to just all the sudden make this offense a scoring machine. I personally think the problem lies up front on the offensive line, as the Cardinals have already given up 15 sacks this season.

Not all the blame goes on the offense either, as the defense hasn’t really played all that well either this season. The Cardinals come in ranked 23rd in the NFL giving up 233 yards passing and are 30th against the run allowing 155 yards a game.

Looking at the Odds: I am all over the Saints to cover the 7-point spread in this game, as the Cardinals are simply just not that good of a football team this season. I believe this will be the game where we see the Saints offense explodes for 30+ points. While the Saints may give up some yards on the ground early, once they get a lead built and force the Cardinals to pass the football, I believe they will run away with this one. My final score prediction is New Orleans 38, Arizona 24.

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