Two teams who were expected to be competing for the Super Bowl this season, but have been highly disappointed thus far will go up against one another this week. The Arizona Cardinals will travel East to take on the Carolina Panthers. The Cardinals are coming off the rare tie, as they battled the Seattle Seahawks to a draw last week. Meanwhile, nothing has gone right for the Panthers, who suffered yet another loss two weeks ago to the New Orleans Saints, followed by a bye a week ago.
Now the Cardinals have been having a very up and down season thus far. They are 3-3-1 and have split the two games they have played on the road. They came East and lost to Buffalo, and then beat the 49ers in San Fran a few weeks later. They have been pretty solid offensively, but last week was a different story. They pretty much dominated the game against Seattle, but could not get anything going on the offensive side. Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald are connecting this season, and those two will need to play a solid game this week to get the win. David Johnson has been on a very nice roll for about four weeks now, and that should continue this week.
As for the Panthers, it is quite simple. Everything that can go wrong, has. They have one win this season, and it came at home against the lowly 49ers. Their other two home games have ended in defeat against Minnesota and Tampa Bay. Cam Newton has simply not looked the same, and no one has really stepped up. The defense was supposed to be one of the better units in the league, but they have not really shown that to this point. I simply cannot lay points with a team I cannot trust, even if they are home and coming off the bye week. This is more a pick against Carolina than it is a pick for Arizona.
Line: Car -2.5, O/U: 48
Pick: Cardinals and the under
Result: Car 30 – Ari 20, Panthers and the over
To see the spreads and over/under for each week eight match-up, make sure you head over to our master sheet right here!