The Los Angeles Rams take on the Arizona Cardinals on Monday Night Football. It’s a huge game, with the NFC West still on the line, along with deep playoff implications to consider. The Cardinals are 10-2, coming off a meaningful win over the Bears, 33-22, on Sunday that saw Kyler Murray back in the fold. The Rams are coming into this, having snapped a three-game slide last week with a 37-7 win over Jacksonville. The stage sets up for what might be the biggest game of the season.
Setting the Table
You still have to wonder about the Rams, with a three-game losing streak not necessarily out of sight by virtue of beating the lowly Jaguars last week. Still, they were able to snap out of a funk on both sides of the ball, and it was a positive development setting up for this showdown. Last week was good for Arizona, not so much because they beat the Bears for their tenth win of the year, but it reunited Murray with his offense, along with DeAndre Hopkins getting back in there and catching a TD. And seeing a mostly-intact Arizona offense get a game under their belt heading into this seems to bolster their case.
On October 3, the Cardinals scored a 37-19 win over the Rams, a massive development for the team that put a lot of wind in their sails. Before that, it was a long run of failure against their longtime divisional tormentor. Murray was efficient, and they ran the heck out the ball. They might still be without Chase Edmonds, who did a lot of the damage on the ground, but James Conner has been a TD maven, and Murray is a threat with his legs, as well.
- Get more details: Rams vs. Cardinals Week 14 Betting Stats
Rams a Solid Choice?
The Rams have some ammo in their column, and before week 4, they had really been sticking it to Murray and Kingsbury since they became the face of Arizona. In week 14, with the stink from a bad run of games still lingering, a win over the division leader would be huge. You’d have to expect them to be pushing hard for a win that would squarely put them back on track for some potentially big things. Not that a loss is so devastating here, but it would likely be the final straw as far as winning the division. And let’s just say a wild card spot wasn’t really what the Rams had in mind this season as they were stacking wins and doing really well until the last month or so. A win here is a sort of cure-all, and I’d expect that to elicit a certain energy we didn’t see in their first game.
Beating the Bears was a good sign for the Cardinals, and one could expect more after getting a win that served as a nice tune-up for Murray and other remaining and returning pieces. But is it a reach to forecast that they’ll be the same team we saw earlier in the season? Or is that something that might require more time to congeal? With a run-game that is lacking the health they had in the first game, that might not be the bankable source of productivity they had in the first game. Last week in Murray’s first game, we saw a pretty subdued overall aerial output. Not that the Rams can’t be exploited through the air, but they can also be pretty tough on air-attacks that aren’t really thriving. Granted, it could be off-base to harp on the Cardinals not being at their best when the only positive development for the Rams since October was a win over Jacksonville. I just feel they could be more primed for a performance this week that is closer to their best.
