Cardinals vs. Jaguars Predictions: More woe for Urban
Still no wins for Urban Meyer and Trevor Lawrence and I doubt they would be happy to see Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals next up on the slate.
Neil Monnery has a look at Sunday's game...
Apparently I can’t just write, ‘the Jags are terrible and the Cardinals are pretty darn good so what do you think?’ as a full betting preview for this game. Shame.
Let’s start with the aforementioned home team. Urban Meyer has not exactly had the start to his NFL career as a Head Coach that he would have envisioned. It is fair to say that the absence of first-round pick Travis Etienne is a legitimate issue for this offense. He was a Swiss-Army knife type of Running Back who could do a little bit of everything. Having him in the backfield would be a significant boost.
First overall pick Trevor Lawrence is a work in progress as you would expect. I have no doubts whatsoever that he can emerge as a top NFL QB in the future but the step-up from taking on college defenses to the pro’s is huge. A measly 42% completion percentage last time out against the Denver Broncos just isn’t going to get it done and the Cardinals D might well be even better.
What he does have is some decent weapons to throw the ball to but to do that he needs time in the pocket. That Jags O-Line isn’t affording him that luxury and with Chandler Jones and his five-sack outing against the Titans being fresh in the memory, don’t expect that to get any better come Sunday afternoon.
For the Cardinals, they are 2-0 with a fine win in Tennessee and holding out by a missed FG at home to the Vikings on their resume. Kyler Murray just looks better this season and his passing has been incredibly accurate. He had an 81% completion rate on Sunday and whilst he did throw two picks, the former number one overall pick just looked to be reading defenses better than what he’d done in his previous two campaigns.
Everyone knows about DeAndre Hopkins but unless you are a big college fan, you may not have known much about Rondale Moore, who was a second round pick out of Purdue. As a BigTen guy, I saw a fair bit of him in college and on Sunday the NFL world saw glimpses of what he can be at the next level. With AJ Green and Christian Kirk also earning time at WR - that is a fast group who can go up and get the ball. They will put up points all season long.
Two weeks isn’t of course a full season but these two teams are already looking like they have two very different goals for the season. The Jags may be looking at another very high draft pick whilst Arizona have ambitions to play deep into January.
Spread:
Earlier this week the hook got me when previewing the Thursday night game but it won’t interest me here. I like Arizona to win despite the 7.5pt handicap.
Straight-up/Moneyline:
Arizona are -300. I won’t play this market because the rewards will just be too low.
Over/Under Points Totals:
52 points interests me somewhat as I think Arizona can easily put up 27+ points against Jacksonville. The big question is what do I think the home side will provide? I’m going with 30-17 as my scoreline so I’ll take the under.
