The Arizona Cardinals (8-4) are coming off their best defensive performance and will be looking to continue that strong play Monday night against the San Francisco 49ers (5-7).  The 49ers beat the Cardinals in the season opener, but the Cardinals are a much better team at this point of the season.  They are third in the league in sacks, so the defense will be able to get a lot of pressure on 49ers’ quarterback Alex Smith.  If they can rattle Smith around, then the 49ers wont have much of a chance.  They held Adrian Peterson to 19 yards on 13 carries, so they shouldn’t have a problem Frank Gore.

On offense, the Cardinals have been clicking very well.  Kurt Warner has two great weapons to throw to in Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, and he has had little problems finding both of them for big plays.  The 49ers give up 250 passing yards per game, so Warner and company should be able to air it out all night.  They aren’t particularly good at stopping the run either, so Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower should help carry some of the offensive load.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Arizona Cardinals 34, San Francisco 49ers 24

This will be a fantastic game to watch if Kurt Warner can play.  If not, this game could get ugly quickly for the Cardinals.  The Cardinals have 32 sacks this season and they must put pressure on Brett Favre or he will slice them apart on Sunday Night.  The hard thing about blitzing Favre a lot as he has been throwing to his backs and TEs a lot when the pressure comes.  Blitzing is also playing with fire against the Vikings because of Adrian Peterson’s ability to go the distance as soon as he gets past the second level of the D.  The Cardinals are giving up 4.5 yards per carry and 108.6 yards rushing so far this season for Peterson should find a lot of running room against them.  If the Cardinals get pulled up closer to the line, Brett Favre will go over the top to Percy Harvin and Sidney Rice against a Cards’ D that is allowing 258.3 yards passing per game this year.

No matter who is playing QB for the Cardinals the O-Line will have to keep DE Jared Allen away from them as he has 12.5 sacks already this year.  He not only sacks the QB, he loves taking the football away from them.  Cardinals’ WRs will have to pay the price by catching short passes to negate the Vikings’ pass rush.  The good thing about that for the Cards is that Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston are all good runners after the catch.  The Vikings are allowing 221.9 yards passing per game so the Cardinals should have some success throwing the ball as long as the QB has time to toss it.  The Cardinals have to also mix in some runs with Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower which would also help to slow the pass rush of the Vikings.

PREDICTION:  With Warner starting for the Cards:  VIKINGS 30, CARDINALS 27    With Leinart starting:  VIKINGS 35, CARDINALS 13

The Arizona Cardinals (7-3) are facing a revitalized Tennessee Titans (4-6) football team, who has won four straight games after starting out 0-6.  The Cardinals have not been doing a very good job lately of protecting Kurt Warner, who left last week’s game with a concussion.  Warner is expected to play, and if he weren’t I would be picking the Titans for sure in this match-up.  Warner is the leader of this team and has been having some very impressive games throughout the season.  He still throws too many interceptions though, so he needs to make sure the Cardinals control the ball a little more as the Titans eat up the clock with their running game.

Titans’ quarterback Vince Young has been one of the main reasons the Titans have turned their season around.  Young has not lost a game this season as the starter, and he and Chris Johnson have been running all over defenses the past four games.  The Cardinals need to try and force Young into a pocket passer, which is a lot easier said than done with the athletic Young.  They should use some of their linebackers to shadow Young, which will help prevent him from scrambling for big gains and first downs.  I think this will be a very close game and a tough one for the Cardinals.  I really like the running attack that Young and the Titans bring so I am taking them in a close one.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Arizona Cardinals 21, Tennessee Titans 24

The Cardinals can’t overlook the Rams who are playing much better than they were early in the year.  They almost beat the Saints last week and they won the game before it against the Lions.  The offense is starting to really click for the Cardinals now and they will be attacking the Rams through the air the minute they get off the team bus.  The Rams are allowing 236.2 yards passing per game and the Cards are averaging 271.0 yards passing per game so Kurt Warner will be throwing the ball early and often in this game.  The Rams don’t really have the corners to deal with Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston so it could be a long day for the Rams if they can’t put any pressure on Warner.  Don’t be surprised if Beanie Wells has a huge game against a Rams’ D that is allowing 142.3 yards rushing per game and 4.5 yards per carry.

The Rams are going to do what they always do on offense and that’s get the ball to Steven Jackson.  Jackson is a absolute beast even if you stack the box against him.  The Cardinals are allowing 101.0 yards rushing per game and 4.2 ypc so Jackson will likely get his yards.  The Cardinals will no doubt be cheating up against the run so it will be up to QB Marc Bulger to make them pay for it.  The Cardinals are allowing 253.4 yards passing per game so Bulger could have a good game against them.  That will depend on young receivers Donnie Avery and Brandon Gibson who must get separation at the line of scrimmage.

PREDICTION:  CARDINALS 35, RAMS 14

The Arizona Cardinals are starting to lean towards making Beanie Wells the featured back in the offense.  In his last 4 games Wells has carried the ball 51 times for 271 yards (5.3 ypc) with 3 TD runs and he has also caught 5 passes for 32 yards.  The Cardinals probably wouldn’t be able to name Wells as the full time back because he’s not a good receiver.  He has now played in 9 games for the Cardinals this season and he has carried the ball 86 times for 395 yards (4.6 ypc) with 3 TD runs and he has also caught 6 passes for 49 yards (8.2 avg).  It’s likely that Wells is about to have all of the duties except being the third down back for the Cardinals very soon.  Tim Hightower would likely still be the back for the Cardinals on passing downs as he is a much better receiver than Wells is.  He has carried the ball 88 times for 320 yards (3.6 ypc) with 5 TD runs so far this season and he has also caught 45 passes for 328 yards (7.3 avg).