Jacob Lintner’s Opinion

This week, the Arizona Cardinals will be playing the Denver Broncos. Not only will the Cardinals play the Broncos, but they will march into Denver and

defeat the reigning AFC Champions. The Cardinals will use their up-and-coming running game and their great defense to thrust the Broncos into a choke hold that they will not be able to come out of.

The Cardinals’ defense has allowed just 71.6 rushing yards per game this season, along with just 2.9 yards per carry. This is coupled with a league-best 949 total yards allowed gives Arizona one of the best defenses in The League. They’re also allowing only 15 points per game, good for the lowest mark in the NFC. Obviously, they will not be able to stop Peyton Manning from putting up great numbers, as he is averaging 271 passing yards per game and completing 66.7 percent of his passes. They will be able to stop the Denver running backs, however. The Broncos have accumulated only 226 rushing yards in the first four weeks and just 75.3 yards per game. This is the main reason that the Broncos will fall to an NFC West team for the second week in a row.

In addition, the Cardinals’ rushing attack has been much better than expected, and it’s certainly better than the Broncos’. They’re averaging 105.7 rushing yards per game, with Andre Ellington leading the way as a versatile runner with his speed and strength. He is complimented by Jonathan Dwyer’s ability to pound the pigskin down the defense’s throat. And, while they only have one rushing touchdown this season, it will be all that Carson Palmer needs to show the Denver defense that he can still throw the ball and run an elite offense. He, even though he’s only played two games this season, has as many touchdown passes as his replacement, Drew Stanton, and he has a quarterback rating of 108.4 on a scale of 0-158.3.

Lastly, the Broncos will be their own demise in this game. Their defense is allowing 390.7 total yards per game, which is the fifth highest in the NFL. As part of that, they are allowing a second-worst 285.3 passing yards per game to go along with their 105.3 rushing yards per game allowed. This, coupled with their terrible rushing game, will be the ultimate downfall of this year’s Denver Broncos. It is why they will not be winning this game, or their conference this year.

Alex Connell’s Opinion

This weeks game is the denver broncos versus the arizona cardinals. the broncos are coming off of a bye week and recovering from the heartbreaking game against the seattle seahawks. This week the Cardinals will get their first loss, to the Denver Broncos. The broncos are well rested and just took on the best defense in the nfl and Super Bowl Champion Seahawks. this week will be a blowout.

Peyton Manning is on top of his game and is almost unstoppable. his biggest weakness is getting sacked because he isn’t the fastest quarterback. but the Cardinals only have three sacks this season and are averaging one sack per game. this will mean that Peyton will have all the time in the world in the pocket and we can expect to see 250+ passing yards at least. not to mention he is throwing to the best receiving core in the NFL with Demarious Thomas, Julius Thomas, Wes Welker, Emmanuel Sanders and Jacob Tamme. with a quarterback like peyton Manning throwing to those receivers and handing the ball off to montee ball who has 165 yards in three games, I don’t see how the Arizona defense could stop them from marching down the field over and over again.

Now a big part of the game will be the Arizona offence versus the Denver defense, their defense has big players like Brandon Marshall and Nate Irving both with 29+ tackles this season means they don’t get far without being ran down by one of these two. in the Denver secondary they have veteran cornerback Aquib Talib one of the best and well respected corners in the nfl today. then you have Chris Harris and Rahim Moore who already have 3 interceptions total this season means whoever has to go up against them is in for a suprise and a very tough day.

The wild card in this game will be the effectiveness of the Denver offense and their ability to move the ball and create drives. They were held to a tough loss against the best defence in the nfl, so i don’t think the Arizona defense will be able to compete with the unstoppable offense ,that took them to the Super Bowl last season, and gave them 606 points and 75 touchdowns that broke multiple NFL records last season. Even though they are coming off a tough loss and a bye week you can expect to see a double digit difference between the scores this week.

Record so far:

Alex Connell 0-3

Jacob Lintner 3-0