After eight games, the Cardinals are a little worse for wear amongst the other teams competing in the NFC. With only three wins and a bizarre tie that was seen on national television by thousands, the Cardinals are lucky to be in second place in their division. With this next game they hope to get back into the competition for a playoff berth with seven more games after this.
Trust the Foot Of the Cat
So far this season, Bruce Arians has made his feelings known about his kicker in Chandler Catanzaro. Thus far he has made multiple misses in critical moments of games throughout the season including the opening loss to New England and the tie game against Seattle. But without Catanzaro his offense would be in a very different position. This season the Cardinals are only scoring touchdowns in the red zone itself at about 64% and are only averaging over 5 points per appearance in the red zone. The only reason the average is so high is because as a whole the team has only been in the red zone 11 times this season. The offense must be able to make more opportunities on their drives so they don’t have to put their kicker in a position to carry the load. While David Johnson leads the team with 48 points, Catanzaro has 46. With only three misses this year he is not the actual problem to the Cardinals inability to win close games. He is being leaned on too much by an offense that is more than capable of dominating a scoreboard.
Beating Up 49ers Pass Blockers
The quarterbacks for the San Francisco 49ers this season have been getting absolutely battered this year. Blaine Gabbert was sacked ten times before being benched for Colin Kaepernick earlier this year and he has taken up the mantle well being dragged down eight times already. The once great offensive line for San Fran is finally showing that all the years of free agency have finally caught up to them. For a team that is finally getting their stride in pressuring the passer, Arizona is salivating at the idea that they get a chance to dominate the line of scrimmage again this week. Marcus Golden and Chandler Jones will be looking to add to their sack totals as the two combine for 11 already this season. The main concern is gap integrity this week as Kaepernick will be under center and his legs have saved him on more than one occasion in the past. If he decides to break free, the linebackers will have to adjust appropriately and drop their coverage duties to try and corral him before he takes off for long gashes of yards.
Receiving Corp Lacking 2nd Option
While Larry Fitzgerald leads the team in catches, yards and touchdowns at the receiving position it is the fact that David Johnson is second on the team in those first two categories that makes it hard to look at this Cardinals offense with any serious fear. Recently Bruce Arians upgraded J.J. Nelson to the number two wide out position ahead of a healthy John Brown and Michael Floyd, both of whom have been disappointing in years that are critical to both of their extended futures with the Cardinals. The two combine for just four touchdowns and neither have been a consistent threat week to week as the two have been battling their share of injuries. The hope is that now that they are finally at 100% they will be able to spread the field more and give Fitzgerald a little bit of breathing room as the veteran has also been battling injuries over the bye week. If Palmer has his full arsenal at the hip ready to fire then it will be a perfect set up for them as the season reaches the climactic finish.
Prediction: 49ers 10 – Cardinals 24
The game will kick off at 2:25 PM from University of Phoenix Stadium this Sunday. Be sure to tune in to FOX to catch the game.