NFL Football
2012-09-16 - Arizona Cardinals at New England Patriots
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States: NFL Week 2
Sunday 16 September 2012 - Kick Off 1pm ET
6pm (British Time)
Preview
The New England Patriots (1-0) opened the season with an impressive Conference win in Tennessee, but the Arizona Cardinals (1-0) will feel in an even better place after picking up a Divisional win over Seattle at home in Week 1.
While there will be a lot of positive feelings for Arizona, it wasn't all good news last week as starter John Skelton was injured. That meant Kevin Kolb once again took the keys to the Offense and he did lead the Cardinals to the touchdown that won the game and will now be the starter for the foreseeable future.
A lot of the pressure may just been on Kolb's shoulders this week to lead the Arizona to another win as the passing Defense remains one of the few weaknesses in the New England Patriot team. However, it won't be easy for Kolb as New England were able to get to Jake Locker last week with 2 sacks and the Cardinals still have one of the more porous Offensive Lines in the League.
To make life that much tougher for the Cardinals, it will be hard for them to deter the Patriots going after Kolb if they cannot run the ball better than they did in their first game. Arizona only managed 2.1 yards per carry last week and are playing a Defense that completely shut down Chris Johnson last week.
On the other side of the ball, we all know the match up problems the New England Patriots two Tight End set causes teams and Tom Brady is one of those Quarter Backs that can just pick apart Defenses for fun. Brady should have enough success through the air in the game, although he will need his Offensive Line to stand up to Defensive Line that did have 3 sacks last week.
Brady will at least be helped with his running game after Stevan Ridley proved very capable last week. The Running Back should have enough in his arsenal to force Arizona to respect him and that should be enough to slow down any pass rush, while also looking out for little screen passes to Ridley to also do that.
Head to Head
New England have won the last 5 meetings in the series, but being in opposite Conferences means they play once every four years in the regular season so these games go back to 1992, with the last game played in 2008.
On that occasion, New England blew Arizona out by 40 points at home to cover the 9 point spread.
The Patriots have won the last 5 games against the spread as well as straight up.
Other Interesting Trends
Arizona are 6-13 against the spread in their last 19 games on the road.
Prediction
I am going to back the New England Patriots to win this game and cover the spread for the following reasons:
First, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the New England Offense will have a much more consistent time moving the chains in this game than their Arizona counter-parts.
Second, this is an early Eastern Time game, so the West Coast Arizona Cardinals are going to have a tough time getting adjusted to the time and may struggle to stay in the game mentally if down early.
Third, Arizona had a big Divisional win last week and they are playing another Conference team at home next week so there is every chance they are looking ahead to that and may not be fully focused on a game they are expected to lose. The Cardinals are just 2-6 against the spread in their last two seasons against non-Conference teams.
I am concerned that New England could be looking ahead to their own Conference battle against Baltimore next week, one that could have a huge bearing on the Number 1 seed in the AFC even at this early stage. However, I will look for the fact that this is their first home game of the season to keep them focused.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
New England Patriots 28-10 Arizona Cardinals
