Patriots vs. Cardinals Pick
With two key pieces out for tonight’s 8:30PM ET kickoff, do the Patriots stand a chance of covering versus the Cardinals?
According to oddsmakers from online sports book Bovada.lv, the Cardinals are 7-point home favorites versus the Patriots while today’s over/under is all the way down to 44 points. This game opened as a pick’em before Tom Brady was suspended, then moved to Arizona -6 and now that Rob Gronkowski has been ruled out, the line was moved up once more in favor of the Cardinals.
Jimmy Garoppolo will start in place of Brady and won’t have Gronkowski (hamstring) at his disposal. Nate Solder is also sidelined for this game with a hamstring injury and will be replaced by Shaq Mason, who is also battling a hand injury. Martellus Bennett will be the Patriots’ starting tight end and figures to play a significant role in the team’s passing game.
While there are a slew of questions on New England’s side of things, Arizona enters tonight chomping at the bit to get the taste of last year’s bitter end out of its mouth. Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and rising star David Johnson return on offense, while Chandler Jones was acquired from the Patriots this offseason to give Arizona’s pass-rush a boost. Tyrann Mathieu is also healthy again and will be a huge piece for the Cards’ defense all season.
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OUR PICK: It’s hard to go against Bill Belichick and the Patriots in an underdog role but everything continues to stack against New England. No Brady, no Gronk, no Solder and no Jones. Belichick can usually out-scheme most coaches but Bruce Arians is outstanding and has more weapons at his disposal tonight. While the Patriots are just 1-6 against the spread in their last seven road games, the Cardinals are a perfect 5-0 ATS in their last five games in September.
NFL WEEK 1 PICK: ARIZONA CARDINALS -7