By Charles Jay
The Arizona Cardinals have been one of the more disappointing teams in the NFL, and have effectively been out of the playoff race for a couple of weeks now. But they have an opportunity to get a little satisfaction on Saturday afternoon when they take on the Seattle Seahawks in an NFC West matchup that gets underway at 4:25 PM ET. The game, which takes place at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, will be televised by CBS, and BetAnySports customers will have the opportunity to place wagers on this contest as it is happening, using the state-of-the-art software available through Live Betting Ultra.
These teams got together in Week 7, and they battled through an overtime for a 6-6 tie. Arizona had the clear yardage advantage (443-257), and that was when both of these teams were in contention. The Cards had already been disappointing people, however, as they suffered close losses to the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams, and got their clock cleaned by the Buffalo Bills. It has been a problem for Arizona to travel, but a lot of that had to do within them going east, as will often be the case with a west coast team. But that is not the problem here. And they are operating not necessarily on all cylinders, but some of them.
Palmer has had his ups and downs, and some people expected that he might have some kind of slide, or at least nothing that was going to approach the MVP-like numbers he had last year. The guy who has enabled the Cards to keep their heads above water is David Johnson, who deservedly earned a Pro Bowl trip in his second NFL season with 1938 yards from scrimmage (combined rushing-receiving).
In the football betting odds that have been posted on this game by the people at BetAnySports, the Seahawks are solid favorites:
Seattle Seahawks -7.5
Arizona Cardinals +7.5
Over 43 points -110
Under 43 points -110
The Seahawks are, of course, missing Earl Thomas, the All-Pro safety who broke his leg, is gone for the year, and has even contemplated retirement. Does this give the Cardinals an opportunity to beat them deep? Yeah it does, although one of the components to that, Michael Floyd, has been released, the result of his reaction to a DUI arrest. Some of the players were not all that happy about the way management dealt with it. Did that have anything to do with their lack of defensive execution in the 48-41 loss to New Orleans last week, when they were torched for 488 yards? Maybe not. But if they can get JJ Nelson loose downfield they can do some business. The Cards don’t necessarily rely on the tight end, so that might mitigate the effect of Kam Chancellor, an All-Pro strong safety for the Seattle side. Then again, it might free Chancellor up to deal more with the aforementioned Johnson.
BetAnySports patrons have seen a lot more mistakes on the part of Russell Wilson lately. Wilson was relatively error-free during the first ten games of the season, throwing just two interceptions. But now he has tossed nine picks in the last four games, including five against the Green Bay Packers. What can he get out of Thomas Rawls? The second-year running back had ankle surgery in the off-season, then came back and promptly fractured his fibula. After he’s come back, he’s been hot and cold (3.5-yard average). And the Seahawks have cut Christine Michael and lost CJ Prosise to an injury.
Seattle has an opportunity to finish 11-4-1 and sew up the #2 seed in the NFC, which is significant since that afford them a first-round bye in the playoffs. But what is in danger of happening is that they may have lost some “edge” or urgency, because they have not seriously been challenged in the division.
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