NFL Quick Picks: Arizona Cardinals at Minnesota Vikings

With the Seahawks playing last night, and the game’s result leaving not wanting to discuss that game just yet, I thought I’d preview some of this weekend’s key games and provide come quick predictions on how I expect the games to unfold.

As I do with my Seahawks predictions, I’m going to base my predictions on the ratings from Pro Football Focus, I’m just going to go into less detail.

Arizona Cardinals

After looking like they were going to be one of the league’s top defenses for the first few weeks, the Cardinals D has come back to Earth, including a -9.6 rating a week ago. They now rank 12th overall in defense at 17.2, which clearly isn’t as elite as we thought they might be.

On offense, the Cardinals are a league worst -111.4 (the 2nd worst -29.2). The don’t do anything well, but their pass blocking and run blocking are -98.5 of that rating, clearly they have major troubles on their offensive line.

Minnesota Viking

Unlike the Cardinals, the Vikings are genuinely good team on both sides of the ball. Their total defense is 3rd in the league (47.6) and their total offense is 5th (51.5). Christain Ponder hasn’t been great, but he’s quieted many of his skeptics with solid (though unspectacular) play.

Final Prediction

This is a pretty easy call. The Vikings have the better offense, the better defense, the better QB and are playing at home. The again, this is the NFL so that means the Cardinals are probably going to win. Still, The data predicts a Vikings win, so I will to.

Vikings 24 – 13 Cardinals