Pick of the week: Lions (-5.5) at Cardinals

 

The Arizona Cardinals are playing some of the worst football in recent history. After somehow lucking their way into winning their first four games of the season, they have now rattled off nine straight losses and look to be going nowhere fast as they placed Kevin Kolb on the IR this week and anointed Ryan Lindley his replacement. 

The Cardinals are a team that will find themselves in the off-season mix for a slew of different options under centre. From Vick to Alex Smith and Matt Flynn. Or maybe Geno Smith or Matt Barkley? Whoever they go after, rest assured that they will not deal with another season of the debacle that they have dealt with this year. 

The offensive line is a disaster, the running game is a Beanie Wells type disaster and the defence can only do so much when their attack struggles to throw for 200 a game. Beanie and LaRod Stephens-Howling are hardly the one-two combination that strikes fear into the heart of opponents. 

Arizona has not scored more than twenty point since week four, and they have 23 points in their last three games – combined. It is ugly and there is no reason to expect that they will even compete in another game this year. 

The Lions are admittedly struggling, but in a painful way that only they could do. They have lost three straight games when leading by ten of more points, and they have become the king of coming out on the wrong end of a close loss. While the secondary receiving options are lacking a bit for Stafford these days with Titus going AWOL and Broyles tearing his ACL, Megatron is still the most dominating receiver in league history and Leshoure has started to find some consistency on the ground. 

A few bounces in the other direction and the Lions could just a easily be 9-4. They have lost three games by three points, one by two and two by four. Got that? Well they love to lose close games and allow teams to come from behind. But the talents is all over the field, save for the corners, so look for them to take it at the Cards. 

It wont be long until Patrick Peterson finds his way out of town like DRC did before him. It would also not be crazy for Larry Fitz to quietly ask around about other opportunities once the season is complete. Imagine Fitz on the Pats? It could be Randy Moss revisited. There is no sense in the Cards paying him as much as they do if they are not going to be able to get him the ball anytime soon. 

While the Lions do love to allow teams to keep it close, Arizona is playing on a level rarely seen in terms of futility. Look for Detroit to make quick and easy work and walk away with an easy road cover. 

 

Pick of the Week record: 6-8.

The Cowboys staged an impressive comeback last week in light of a tragedy. Impossible to take into account, and would rather that they didn't play any game at all. 

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