Well, after the referee-fueled loss to the Chargers, we have to take on the unbeaten Cardinals at our house.

On O: I say we keep running the damn ball and use the play-action. The usual, in other words. Keep Njoku going, too. He was a beast last week.

I don’t know who is back, but a healthy Landry would make an impact.

Defence: Clowney will play, I suspect, and if we keep Murray in the pocket it might be a game that sees him squashed like a bug.

On ST: keep kicking them straight, boys. Oh, and start punting well, Scottish Hammer. You remind me, lately, of a little plastic hammer I had as a little boy, that couldn’t hit anything hard.

Thoughts on the game?

Kyler Murray is the best athlete I’ve ever seen in person in my life. He’s basically impossible to stop. He does make two or three horrible decisions a game. Capitalize of those and prosper.

The Two Minute Offense!!!

The deepest player Pass Defense!!!

Vegas odds:

The moneyline:

AZ (+125)
CLE (-145)

Against the spread:

AZ +2.5 (+105)
CLE -2.5 (-125)

We should be able to score. They should be able to score. Who has the better final drive?

It could easily be something like 52-48 lol

I don't follow this Cardinals team. Are they as good as their record says?

People have been saying they're not as good as their record since they were 2-0.

I don't disagree with anything you said. The odd thing for me, though, is that when he runs, he looks like a baby sprinting.

Ratbirds in red. Best "overrated" unbeaten team so far. Just wondering how many points we need to provide a cushion the defense can't blow. We handed them leads and lost despite a ridiculous number of points. This one could be a track meet if we can keep up.

Stefanski needs to "pass" the situational" stuff that trips him up and has before; I am lumping sideline in there as broad and unfair as that may be. Half jokingly urged considering handing off play calling in the fourth to Van Pelt. Or alternating series. We are the underdogs, without a doubt, and beaten up underdogs at that. I haven't yet felt a cold-blooded finisher feel yet.

Stand up. Rise up. Believe that you'll achieve. Achieveland!

I lurked on some of their forums and their fans are legit scared of us. Especially because of the weather and our run game. Apparently they struggle stopping the run just like the Bolts. It's supposed to be very windy in our house so that impacts their game plan.

He is tiny. He was a whole head shorter than many of the players on the field.

Encouraging! Thanks for sharing this. They are a blindspot for me. Murray needs a miserable day.

I don't follow them or watch them, but I read some of the Cardinals reporters out here and have some fairly knowledgeable Cardinals fans as friends. Their LBs and secondary are for real. Getting our TEs involved more (like Njoku, especially after last week) may be a bit more difficult than we think. A very healthy Landry would have gone a long way to remedying this.

Sounds obvious, but knocking around Murray early is the key. I know JOK is back, so that hopefully will help contain him a bit otherwise.

Unlike some of the other teams that were undefeated up until recently, the Cardinals are for real at this point (imo).

I don't know that windy weather is going to help us too much.

Like everyone else, I'm hoping for early and big hits on Murray before our defense might have to play catch up later on. Run, run and run more. Don't force Baker to throw deep late. The harness is hindering him.

All obvious stuff, but my two cents.

hard to say. They have a very impressive 2+ score win on the road against the Rams. They also struggled with the 49ers and needed a defensive TD and some late game heroics to beat the Vikings after giving up 33 points to them.


They are 5-0, and in the NFL, that's fairly impressive no matter who you have played... It will be a good test from a team that has scored in the 30s 4 of their 5 games.

I hope we have a "contain" pass rush and I hope we open up the passing game a little bit early.

I'm taking the Browns in my pickem league, but I honestly don't see how we win this one.

First 2-game skid for Ski.

I'm going to have to follow the injury reports to reach my conclusion.

Me too. This is a toss-up favoring them but we could win.

Say that reminds me.
This could be described as just a dress rehearsal for stopping Lamar Jackson.

If the Browns can't stop Kyler Murray this week, there's no way they are sweeping the Ravens.

And if they get 'swept!' BY the ravens, (puke!) then the hopes for a playoff year would be about dashed.
So.

I see just the opposite. Browns are at home. Cleveland's defense simply contains Murry and forces him to try and through the football into tight windows.

On offense, we pound the rock and work the underneath routes.

I think we see another shoot-out. Cleveland gets the win from some good ol'home cook'n!

I hope you're right, but I'm not sure the D will be healthy enough to contain anything, and the same concern stands for the O and being able to score. There's just so many freaking injuries!

Is that more about the backups that will play won't be up to the task, or do you think there will be 50% healthy players, suiting up and playing.

j/c

Browns opened as 3 point favorites - are now 3.5 point favorites ... My guess is that even banged up Cleveland is a bigger challenge than the Cards have faced so far this year.

I'm expecting the Cards to be able to score. I think we'll need 30+ to be able to win.

jc.

I just hope they run the ball when they should and not try to outsmart themselves like they seem to be doing weekly. If your 4th and 1 in the red zone, run the dang ball for Pete's sake.

I�ve been paying attention to this line a lot. We opened at -4.5 and it�s fluctuated between -3.5 and -2.5 most of the time. It�s about as close of a game as Vegas picks if you consider the home field advantage

by scoring more points than them;)

From an article linked in the Injuries/Covid thread (one of the Tweets):

"DIME TIME

Woods turned up the dial on the three-safety dime package last week and isn�t turning back.

Safeties Johnson and Ronnie Harrison Jr. played all 75 defensive snaps and were joined by Grant Delpit for 23. Rookie Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah was the lone linebacker along with the four defensive linemen and three cornerbacks. Owusu-Koramoah played a season-high 68 snaps and looks poised to replace Anthony Walker Jr. as the every-down linebacker.

�We kind of made a big jump last week in terms of what we had in our game plan,� Woods said. �It really is just moving forward completely with our dime package, so we are definitely heading in that direction. We will continue to do that for the rest of the season.�"

So, as I had guessed, after two straight weeks of success on D, Woods added a bit more and progressed the defense. The miscommunications and broken plays we saw were likely the result of growing pains from our new look Defense.

Hopefully they will fare much better this week, but we can expect the same level of broken plays if the players haven't learned and adjusted.

p.s. this is likely the "change in technique" that is referenced by Woods in the Chargers Game's "Looking Back" forum.