The Baltimore Ravens take on the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The game is scheduled to kickoff on Monday October 26 at 8:30 PM. ET.
Last week, the Ravens lost to the offensively challenged 49ers. Baltimore struggled to stop Colin Kaepernick as he threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns on the season. Kaepernick has struggled all season to throw downfield, so it’s a bad sign that the Ravens defense struggled to slow him down. The Ravens will have a much harder test this week against Carson Palmer.
Last week, the Cardinals lost to a Steelers squad that’s been surprisingly resilient without their all-pro quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger. The Cardinals were ahead going into the second half before they imploded and gave up a small lead. This week, against a Ravens squad that ranks near the bottom in total defense, the Cardinals should move the ball effortlessly.
A player to watch this week on the Baltimore Ravens is running back Justin Forsett. Last season, Forsett rushed for 1,266 yards and eight touchdowns. His 5.4 yards per rush was the highest in the league. That was last year. This year he has averaged 4.4 yards per rush. That is a significant drop, however, he’s still on pace to average over 1,200 yards on the season. If the Ravens are to upset the Cardinals, they will need a big game from Forsett.
A player to watch this week on the Cardinals is John Brown. Last week he saw the most targets of any receiver with 14 on the afternoon. In the loss, Brown had 10 catches for 196 yards. The Cardinals passing attack is key to this game. The Ravens rank near the bottom of the league in pass defense. Carson Palmer will certainly spread the ball around to his entire receiving core, but don’t be surprised if Brown ends the game with more targets than Larry Fitzgerald.
Both of these teams are looking to bounce back after disappointing showings in week six. The Ravens are in the beginnings of what looks like a very long season. This Ravens team looks very different without Terrell Suggs in the lineup and the lack of leadership on the field shows. This Ravens defense does not look like a John Harbaugh defense and against the Cardinals this had all the signs of a blowout.
The Cardinals biggest concern is penalties. Against the Steelers, the Cardinals accumulated a whopping nine penalties for over 100 yards. That is a difficult amount of negative play to overcome for any football team. Arizona will have to play more disciplined against Baltimore. On paper, Arizona is by far superior, but if they allow Baltimore to hang around because of penalties, then their chances of winning goes way down.
Ravens Vs Cardinals Week 7 Betting Lines
BetOnline.ag has the Cardinals favored to win this game by 8 points. The over/under on total points scored is 48.5 points. BetOnline is our top rated NFL sportsbook at the moment. You can read our full BetOnline review here.
My Pick
Expect a high scoring game, at least on the Cardinals side. Carson Palmer has looked like his vintage self this season. On the year he’s completed 64.8 percent of his passes and has thrown for 14 touchdowns to 5 interceptions. In contrast, Joe Flacco is having an all-around nightmare season. He has completed only 62.3 percent of his passes and has thrown for 8 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
The Cardinals are 8 point favorites in this game. The fact that the Cardinals’ greatest strength is passing the ball, and the Ravens’ biggest weakness is stopping the pass, makes this spread very doable. This is a very difficult matchup for the Ravens and this game could quickly get out of hand. Expect the Cardinals to reduce the number of penalties and play a much more disciplined game against the Ravens than they did against the Steelers.
Play: Cardinals -8 @ BetOnline.ag
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