Rams vs. Cardinals: NFL Monday Night Preview and Predictions
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
Five down and one to go. By the time that Monday Night Football rolls around, we’ll have the divisional games all but squared away. With the Rams and Cardinals slated for a 4 vs. 5 matchup, all will have been decided with the Packers likely waiting for the winner of this game. Or possibly the Buccaneers if the 49ers upset the Cowboys.
… I’m not even going to entertain the idea that the Eagles could defeat the Bucs, but if they did, then the Packers would face the Eagles and the Rams/Cards winner would face the winner of the 49ers vs. the Cowboys…
Anyway, enough with the future projections. Let’s get into the game at hand.
Arizona Cardinals @ Los Angeles Rams
The Monday night meeting between the Cardinals and the Rams features two quarterbacks without a playoff win to their names. On one side, you’ve got Kyler Murray in his third season as a pro, set to make his post-season debut. On the other, you’ve got Matthew Stafford in his 13th year as a pro, but his first with the LA Rams.
Under his new regime, Matt finished the season as the 3rd best passing quarterback with 4886 yards and second for touchdowns with 41. Kyler was more of a dual threat, finishing the season 14th in terms of yards, 12th in terms of passing touchdowns but 4th for both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns among quarterbacks.
Matt Stafford was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 2009 and spent the next 12 years of his career with the struggling franchise. In those 12 years, the Lions only managed to record 4 winning seasons and 3 playoff appearances, with all three resulting in a loss in the Wild Card round. As for those other years? They were bad. Like real bad. Excluding the four winning seasons, the Lions combined for a 34-77-1 record, finishing dead last in the NFC North nearly half of those years. Even still, Matthew Stafford has managed to stand out as one of the league’s best talents, and now that he’s playing for the Rams, we can finally see what he’s capable of in the big dance.
For the Cardinals, it’s really been a tale of two seasons. After beginning the year with a 7-0 start – including three wins over playoff teams in the Titans, Rams and 49ers – things began to come off the rails. They’d lose one and then win the next. They’d loss a couple more and then win the next two. This trend continued until the end of the season when the Cardinals dropped four of their last five, limping into the playoffs to face their in-division rival LA Rams.
Amid their recent skid, the Cardinals suffered losses to the Rams, Lions, Colts and Seahawks – only one of the four making it into the 2021 post season. But they also managed a week 17 win over the Dallas Cowboys in a game where the score doesn’t truly reflect how dominant the Cardinals were. The Rams are trending in the opposite direction, winning five of their last six, including that win over the Cardinals in mid-December. So will the Cardinals turn things around or are the Rams going to keep on rolling?
Prediction: You have to ride the momentum here. The Cardinals are limping into the playoffs and the Rams seem to be clicking at the right time. With Matt Stafford behind center, the Rams have one of the most dynamic offenses in the league. The Cardinals will likely have flashes of brilliance with a touch of Kyler Murray improv but over the course of 60 minutes, I think the Rams will get the job done. Rams 31, Cardinals 24.
