Arizona Cardinals Deal with Injuries as They Face the Bengals
By Charles Jay
The Arizona Cardinals have been perfect so far during the pre-season, although they have not experienced perfect health. On Sunday night they prepare to face off against last year’s AFC North champions when the Cincinnati Bengals visit for NFL betting action that is set to kick off at 8 PM ET at University of Phoenix Stadium, televised by NBC.
Cincinnati was involved in a 41-39 defeat in its pre-season opener, and needless to say, that’s extremely high scoring for any exhibition contest. Then they lost to the New York Jets, despite benefiting from seven personal fouls on the part of the Jets.
Arizona has done well on the offensive end this pre-season. The Cardinals took Houston to the cleaners 32-0 in the opener, then lost 30-28 to the Minnesota Vikings. They are getting Carson Palmer ready for the season, for sure, and it is always going to be a story when Palmer faces off against the team with whom he had a very unceremonious breakup in 2011. But there is another story as well, and it involves quarterback Logan Thomas, the rookie “project” who was right on target in his first NFL action and will get an opportunity to demonstrate that maybe he is worth developing, as many scouts had projected him as a tight end. There’s not much of a shot he will beat out Drew Stanton for the backup job, but the #3 spot could be his, and he’ll get playing time.
In the NFL odds that have been posted on this game by the people at BetAnySports, the Cards are the slight favorites:
Arizona Cardinals -2.5 (-120)
Cincinnati Bengals +2.5 (+100)
Over 42.5 Points -110
Under 42.5 Points -110
One thing the Bengals need is all the receiving help they can get in support of AJ Green. And they lost part of that in camp, as Marvin Jones went down with a broken foot. The likelihood is that he will miss half the season, and that means the options for quarterback Andy Dalton, who just signed a huge new deal, have thinned out just a little. By the way, Dalton was pretty sharp in last week’s 25-17 loss to the New York Jets, as he hit on all eight of his passes. And he has had only two incompletions in two games, with an average of 18.5 yards a completion.
NFL bettors saw that things were not so pleasant for rookie Matt Scott, who has already lost his lunch once on the field during the pre-season. The Jets presented him with another horror story when they kept their first-team defense and blitzed him mercilessly. That brought the ire of Bengals’ offensive line coach Paul Alexander, who didn’t think that was fair play. But maybe that’s a matter of perspective; Rex Ryan seemed to be sending a message of payback, as his team was blasted by the Bengals last year 49-9.
Cincinnati will continue trying to implement the no-huddle variation into its offense, so BetAnySports customers can certainly expect to see some of that. Arizona’s defense has lost a couple of starters, which is significant since this is the game where the starters will usually go longest. Darnell Dockett, the outstanding defensive tackle, has been lost for the season after a torn ACL, and that is a huge blow when you combine it with the suspension linebacker Daryl Washington has to serve this season. Meanwhile, they will welcome back safety Tyrann Mathieu, known to many as the “Honey Badger,” after he went down from an ACL last year. But it’s not certain how much he’ll actually play.
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