NFL Week 15 Kickoff

by JASmius



At this time every season there's always a team that isn't going anywhere but suddenly, for whatever reason, gets hot and plays the spoiler for rivals that are in the playoff hunt.  These teams are always described as ones that "nobody wants to play".

Right now, the spoiler is the St. Louis Rams and the team trying to stay in the playoff hunt is the Arizona Cardinals.

Yes, you might have recently remembered the Cards as the club that had the best record in the NFL, but the World Champs took care of that, followed by the lowly-yet-NFC-South-co-leading Atlanta Falcons a week later.  Suddenly a three-game NFC West lead over Seattle shrank to one.  To their credit, the Cards stopped the bleeding last week at home by eking out a win over Kansas City, but that was a brief reprieve.  Now Arizona goes to Riot Central to play the team that has won its last two games by a combined score of 76-0.

There's not much to look at matchup-wise.  The Cards still can't run and still connect on a handful of long throws and little else, while the Rams can't pass but are....well, not horrible at running the ball.  But Arizona still can't stop the pass, but is #6 against the run, which suggests that Austin Davis may get a chance to take over the game.  And on the other side of the ball, the Rams defense is pretty solid across the board (#11 over all, #14 against the pass, #10 against the run).  Which means that if your team's chances hang on the arm of Drew (Who?) Stanton, you have some serious problems.

This is reflected in my current power rankings, where Arizona is #16 and St. Louis is, yes, #4 (that's what winning in consecutive weeks by a combined score of 76-0 will do for a team).

The pick, accordingly, makes itself.

Arizona
St. Louis* (-4.5)

So, after the Seahawks complete their sweep of the 49ers on Sunday, that three-game Cardinal lead of a month ago will be gone, and Arizona will be, effectively, in second place, with their next stop being at the Big Toaster against....the Seahawks.

Doesn't rain, but it pours, huh?