Cards Wire’s Jess Root and Raiders Wire’s Marcus Mosher make their expert picks and predictions for the Week 2 battle between the Cards and Raiders.
The Arizona Cardinals seek to avoid an 0-2 start as they travel to take on the Las Vegas Raiders on the road. The Raiders also want to avoid an 0-2 start.
Arizona was blown out 44-21 by the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 1, allowing Patrick Mahomes to throw five touchdown passes and the Kansas City offense to roll up 488 total yards.
The Raiders lost 24-19 to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1. Quarterback Derek Carr was sacked six times and intercepted three times.
With both teams hoping to bounce back, how will the game play out?
Raiders Wire managing editor Marcus Mosher and I give our expert picks for the game this weekend.
The Cardinals have one former Titan, while Tennessee has a pair of former Cardinals.
The Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans face each other Saturday for their final preseason contest. While some opponents have several player connections, between the two teams and their 80-man rosters currently, there are only three player connections.
Both teams are concerned about their health heading into the preseason finale.
The Arizona Cardinals will face the Tennessee Titans in their final preseason game this Saturday. They were set to hold two joint practices Wednesday and Thursday leading up to that matchup.
For the Cardinals, it was going to be the only competitive football work the regular starters were going to get against another team.
Plans have changed.
Titans head coach Mike Vrabel told reporters in Tennessee that the two teams will still hold a joint practice but it will only be one day. Instead of Wednesday and Thursday, it will only be Wednesday.
Vrabel said, “just from a health standpoint, Kliff and I decided that was best for our football teams.”
Both team want to make sure they don’t get any key players hurt in a competitive practice less than three weeks from the start of the season.
We needed to see more from Zaven Collins, Marco Wilson and Matt Prater.
The Arizona Cardinals had a lot of good things happen in their 36-23 preseason win over the Cincinnati Bengals Friday night. Several young players and hopefuls for the roster stood out and made great impressions.
However, not everyone stood out. In fact, three players expected to be starters this coming season fell short of expectations.
Check out the sixth and final installment of the podcast series previewing the Cardinals’ 2022 opponents.
We have the final of the six opponent preview shows live and ready for your listening pleasure. After five shows that focused on the Arizona Cardinals’ opponents in the NFC West, AFC and NFC South, the final show previews their three second-place games, the opponents who were in second place in their divisions last year like the Cardinals.
Those teams are the Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots.
I spoke with Eagles Wire managing editor Glenn Erby, Vikings Wire managing editor Jordy McElroy and Patriots Wire managing editor Henry McKenna to discuss the teams they cover and specifically the 2021 season, this offseason and the outlook for those teams in 2022.
It’s a super-sized show with the three guests. Enjoy!
Enjoy the show with the embedded player above or by subscribing to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform, so you never miss a show. Make sure as well to give it a five-star rating!
Here are the approximate timestamps for each team preview:
(1:00) The Eagles’ 2021 season, recent offseason moves and outlook for 2022 with Eagles Wire managing editor Glenn Erby
(29:53) The Vikings’ 2021 season, recent offseason moves and outlook for 2022 with Vikings Wire managing editor Jordy McElroy
(1:03:02) (1:00) The Patriots’ 2021 season, recent offseason moves and outlook for 2022 with Patriots Wire managing editor Henry McKenna
The Seahawks’ initial injury report of the week is 17 players long.
The Seattle Seahawks are banged up as they enter their final game of the season, a road game in Week 18 against the Arizona Cardinals. Their initial injury report of the week on Wednesday was 17 players long, 11 of whom were unable to practice.
The Cardinals feel like they will be fine if they just stop hurting themselves in games.
The Arizona Cardinals have had their toughest stretch of the season. They have lost three games in a row and are 3-5 after a 7-0 start to the year.
They have clinched a playoff berth but lost their lead in the NFC West with two games remaining in the regular season.
Looking at social media and what Cardinals fans are saying and how they are reacting, one might think this was the 2018 season. Many are ready to fire everyone.
That, of course, is extreme, but there is certainly a panicked feeling among the fanbase after seeing 7-0 and Super Bowl aspirations turn into 10-5 and potentially seeing five straight losses to end the season and a sixth as they bumped from the playoffs in the wild card round.
However, the team is not panicking and they shouldn’t be.
The reality is they are a playoff team for the first time since 2015. They can still win the division and finish the regular season with as many as 12 wins, the second-most wins in a season in franchise history.
Quarterback Kyler Murray spoke about it on Wednesday.
“We’re 10-5, we’re in the playoffs, but the only thing that matters is this next game,” he said. “If you go back and look everybody has been through this. This is not something that teams that have won Super Bowls haven’t gone through. It’s the NFL.”
The rough patch has come because of mistakes mostly. They are getting penalized more than they have before. They are not scoring touchdowns in the red zone. The theme has consistently been that they are beating themselves.
“You lose when you don’t do things right,” he said. “If you make it hard on yourself, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you’re going to get beat. When you’re playing well, and it feels like everything is going right for you, that’s just what happens.”
He isn’t worried and doesn’t think there is any real panic setting.
“Me personally, I’m not panicking. I don’t think anybody on this team is panicking,” he said, and noted they are far from the first team heading to the playoffs having suffered three straight losses. “Yes, we’ve lost three in a row. The Rams lost three in a row. Everybody was counting them out. It’s not a thing where it doesn’t happen. This is the NFL, it’s not easy.”
The Rams lost three in a row and figured things out. Now, they have won four in a row and suddenly look like they could roll all the way to the Super Bowl.
It starts this week against the Dallas Cowboys. They have to get back to not beating themselves.
“When you do things right and you don’t hurt yourself, you don’t beat yourself,” he said. “I like us in those situations if we just put our best foot forward and play clean football. If you play clean football, you have a chance at the end of the day.”
The Colts announce who will not dress for them against the Cardinals.
The Indianapolis Colts had a number of players land on the COVID list. Three more were added Saturday afternoon. As such, their inactive list is short.
The announced the deactivation of these four players:
RB Marlon Mack
C Ryan Kelly
S Andrew Sendejo
WR Mike Strachan
Kelly (personal) and Sendejo (concussion) were ruled out on Thursday on the final injury report of the week.
They will also be missing CB Rock Ya-Sin, G Quenton Nelson, G Mark Glowinski, LB Darius Leonard, S Khari Willis and WR Zach Pascal. All were added to the COVID list this week.
The Cardinals added four players from the practice squad to the active roster for their game Saturday night against the Colts.
The Arizona Cardinals added four players from the practice squad to the active roster in moves hours before their Week 16 game against the Indianapolis Colts.
They signed receiver Greg Dortch from the practice squad to the active roster, suggesting that Rondale Moore, officially questionable for the game with an ankle injury that kept him out of practice all week, will not be able to play.
They elevated punter Ryan Winslow, defensive lineman Josh Mauro and cornerback Kevin Peterson to the roster. Winslow was a standard elevation, while Mauro and Peterson were COVID-19 replacements. Punter Andy Lee and center Rodney Hudson remain on the COVID list.
Since no offensive linemen were added, it would appear that Max Garcia will at least be active and could start at center. They only have eight linemen on the active roster and need eight active for the game.
With Mauro’s elevation, it suggests that Zach Kerr, questionable with a rib injury, will not be able to play. Defensive lineman Jordan Phillips was ruled out with a knee injury.
