Punter Ben Graham has been outstanding for the Cardinals this season as he has been helping them win the field position battle almost every Sunday.  He has punted the ball 36 times for 1,719 yards (47.8 avg) this season.  Graham has only 3 touchbacks this season (8.3%) and he has pinned the opposition inside their own 20-yard line 16 times (44.4%).  His outstanding work has really helped the Cardinals’ D and they hope he can keep up the outstanding work.

This is a pretty bad matchup for the Carolina Panthers.  The Panthers need to run the ball with DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart but the Cardinals are only allowing 67.5 yards rushing and 3.0 yards per carry this season.  If the Panthers can’t run the ball effectively they can’t win this game on Sunday.  Jake Delhomme has been awful this season as he has 4 TD passes and 13 INTs so the Panthers don’t want to depend on him to win this game.  It would be helpful to the Panthers if they can get Steve Smith involved in the offense.

If the Cardinals are ever going to get the running game going this would be a good week to try it out.  Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower should find a lot of running room against a Panthers’ D that is allowing 133.2 yards rushing per game and 4.4 yards per carry.  The Cardinals must keep Julius Peppers away from Kurt Warner so that he has time to carve up the Panthers’ secondary with Larry Fitzgerald, Steve Breaston and Anquan Boldin. 

PREDICTION:  CARDINALS 34, PANTHERS 13

The Arizona Cardinals (4-2) beat the New York Giants (5-2) Sunday night, and it was the defense who deserved most of the credit.  The Cardinals aren’t really known for their defense, as it is there passing attack with Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, and Anquan Boldin that usually leads them to victories.  The Cardinals defense forced the Giants into four turnovers, picking off Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning three times.  The Cardinals got some help from the Giants punter Jeff Feagles as well.  Feagles was trying to aim some punts down the sideline to limit the Cardinals talented return man, Steve Breaston.  Feagles failed miserably time after time and averaged 34 yards on seven punts in this contest.

The Cardinals got enough out of their offense as Beanie Wells had a solid day on the ground for them.  Wells finished with 67 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries (4.8 avg).  Kurt Warner played okay, with one touchdown and one interception on 231 yards and 20/36 passes attempts.  He found Larry Fitzgerald for some big plays though, as Fitzgerald catches of 26 and 27 yards.  He finished with six catches for 83 yards.  This was a big win for the Cardinals and they sit atop the NFC West.  They face off against the Carolina Panthers at home next game.

The Arizona Cardinals (3-2) are on the road against the New York Giants (5-1) Sunday.  The Cardinals are coming off a big offensive explosion in their 27-3 win over the Seattle Seahawks.  It was a good sign from their defense too, holding a Seahawks team to only three points after they put up 41 points the week before.  The Giants are a much better team than the Seahawks though, so this should be a closely fought battle.

The Giants are coming off their worst defensive game of the year, but it was against the best offensive team this year in the New Orleans Saints.  They are still only giving up 148 passing yards per game despite the big passing game from Drew Brees (368 yards, 4 TDs) last week against them.  Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, and the rest of the Cardinals passing game has the ability to put up Saints’ type numbers though.  The Giants offense has that ability too though, with Eli Manning throwing for 1390 yards with 11 touchdowns and only three interceptions so far this year.  Eli has been battling plantar fasciitis, but he should be over it by now so I am expecting a better game out of him than the past few weeks.  This should be a very close game but I think the Giants have the better defense and will come away with a close win.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:   Arizona Cardinals 30, New York Giants 35

The Cardinals are holding opposing teams to only 59.6 yards rushing per game this season.  The reason is not because teams have had so much success passing (265.2 yards per game) that have decided to abandon the run because the Cardinals are only allowing 2.8 yards per carry.  The credit needs to go to the front seven of the Cardinals’ D which includes linebackers Gerald Hayes, Karlos Dansby, Clark Haggans, Chike Okeafor and defensive linemen Darnell Dockett, Calais Campbell and Bertrand Berry.  The Cardinals have a few playmakers in the secondary so with the defense making teams one dimensional the team will likely start getting big plays from the back four of the defense.