The Arizona Cardinals are heavy favorites in their Week 15 matchup over the Detroit Lions. Detroit’s games this season have tended to go one of two ways — either they are blowouts or the Lions lose heartbreakers.
To see how this game might play out, we ran a simulation of the game on Madden NFL 22. In it, the Cardinals almost fail to beat the Lions but, thanks to a game-ending, 43-yard field goal by former Lions kicker Matt Prater to win 26-24.
The Cardinals built a 20-3 lead entering the fourth quarter but the Lions rallied back. Quarterback Jared Goff rushed for the go-ahead touchdown with 43 seconds left to go up 24-23. But the Cardinals executed a perfect hurry-up offense to get into field-goal range for Prater.
Prater made four field goals in the game.
Quarterback Kyler Murray had 412 passing yards and a touchdown, but he was picked off twice. Chase Edmonds led the team with 38 rushing yards and a score.
A.J. Green led all receivers with 11 catches for 162 yards, while Christian Kirk had eight for 91 yards and a touchdown and tight end Zach Ertz had eight for 80 yards.
Markus Golden sacked Goff twice and the Cardinals got one sack each from Jordan Phillips and Zach Allen.
For the Lions, Goff had 338 passing yards and a touchdown in addition to his rushing score. Jamaal Williams was the leading rusher with 42 yards and a touchdown.
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