Cardinals at Panthers Week 4 Preview and Prediction

Arizona Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals are back to the drawing board after losing to the Los Angeles Rams at home Sunday, 20-12. That’s two losses now for the Cardinals, and things don't seem to be getting much better. I think we all know the talent that this team has, but the problem is that they are poorly coached, and despite being good on paper, continue to lose games. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury you would think is hanging on by a thread, as the guy just can't win games in the second half of seasons, and now he can't win them in the first half.

Arizona has enough weapons on its offense to bend and break Carolina’s defense, but the question will be if they can actually put a full game together or not. Kyler Murray just passed for over 300 yards in the Rams game, while wide receiver Marquise Brown caught 14 passes for 140 receiving yards, and they still could only muster up 12 points.

The Panthers really don't have much to offer here, and this should be a very close game. The Cardinals are 7-1 against the spread in their last eight October games, and the under is 6-1 in Arizona’s last seven outings after a loss. It will be interesting to see if Kingsbury can regain his early season magic against a poor opponent.

Carolina Panthers

The Panthers have been trash so far this season, but at least they finally got a win with a 22-14 victory over the New Orleans Saints in Week 3. They actually got outplayed big time in the game in most categories, but still won by margin somehow. You can thank their defense I guess for generating turnovers that really helped them steal away a victory that they otherwise didn't deserve.

They may have been outplayed for most of the game, but the defense for the Panthers has actually done some good things early on in the year, especially when it comes to forcing turnovers. Against the Saints, Carolina intercepted Jameis Winston two times and sacked him once. The Panthers also forced Saints running back Alvin Kamara to lose a fumble, and held him to just 61 yards on 15 carries.

As for their own offense, the Panthers should start to use RB Christian McCaffrey more in the passing game. He had 108 rushing yards on 25 carries against the Saints but only had two catches for seven yards.

The Panthers are 8-3 against the spread in their last 11 games in Week 4. The Over is 7-2 in Carolina’s last nine Week 4 games.

My Prediction

I honestly do not want to bet a side in this game with the number being basically a pick 'em. Instead, since Arizona is getting 1.5 here, I'll tease them up to 7.5 and pair them with another game that I really like. I don't see this game becoming a blowout either way, as neither one of these teams I think are capable of blowing the other out.