Detroit vs Arizona, the top two teams currently in the NFC play here next week

[dreamcastrocks]

they beat Green Bay and Miami... both are solid Ws. We've beaten the Niners (who are a play away from being 4-5), Eagles (BIG W) and a Romo-less Cowboy team as our big wins with squeakers over the rest of the schedule. If someone is going to question the Lions record, you could easily do the same with us.

reality is they're a tough team right now and so are we. should be a battle.

+1

 

[Iceman]

Got to love being in this situation right now. Best of the best playing and the Cardinals are on the list! So glad it's a home game

 

[Mulli]

they beat Green Bay and Miami... both are solid Ws. We've beaten the Niners (who are a play away from being 4-5), Eagles (BIG W) and a Romo-less Cowboy team as our big wins with squeakers over the rest of the schedule. If someone is going to question the Lions record, you could easily do the same with us.

reality is they're a tough team right now and so are we. should be a battle.

If the Cards and the Lions can claim close wins, how can you use the one play away thing against the 9ers?

 

[Cheesebeef]

If the Cards and the Lions can claim close wins, how can you use the one play away thing against the 9ers?

point is, people can make arguments about both teams equally at this point, but our records are 8-1 and 7-2, with solid wins from both clubs, which makes us both formidable.

 

[82CardsGrad]

point is, people can make arguments about both teams equally at this point, but our records are 8-1 and 7-2, with solid wins from both clubs, which makes us both formidable.

Can't really control who we play... We did beat a Rams team that beat both Seattle and the 9ers on the road.
We shut down the best rushing attack in the game @ Dallas...

I never get into the game of questioning the wins in the NFL, as I truly believe that a team is what their record suggests. The Lions are an extremely good team. Extremely well-coached (amazing you can now say that about a Lions team but Caldwell is right up there for Coach of the Year consideration). Extremely talented... they have playmakers all over the field.
And, you can say all of those things about the Cards! Should be a great game!!

 

[Azlen]

You really have a tale of two coaches when you look at the answer they had to the question on whether they had looked at the standings and had noted the importance of this game.

(answers paraphrased)

Caldwell: No, there's still a lot of football to be played and nobody has given us anything yet.

Arians: Hell ya, this is a big game.

 

[Mulli]

they beat Green Bay and Miami... both are solid Ws. We've beaten the Niners (who are a play away from being 4-5), Eagles (BIG W) and a Romo-less Cowboy team as our big wins with squeakers over the rest of the schedule. If someone is going to question the Lions record, you could easily do the same with us.

reality is they're a tough team right now and so are we. should be a battle.

point is, people can make arguments about both teams equally at this point, but our records are 8-1 and 7-2, with solid wins from both clubs, which makes us both formidable.

Whatever!

Haha.

 

[CardLogic]

You really have a tale of two coaches when you look at the answer they had to the question on whether they had looked at the standings and had noted the importance of this game.

(answers paraphrased)

Caldwell: No, there's still a lot of football to be played and nobody has given us anything yet.

Arians: Hell ya, this is a big game.

Arians is refreshing! You don't get the same old coachspeak from him.

 

[Lloydian]

I'm happy for Detroit that they have such a well-regarded defense, but that, too, is a reflection of the level of competition. Going into the game in Dallas, everyone knew that Dallas had a top notch running game. But that was because they hadn't faced the Cardinals.

Detroit's defense is top notch against primarily lower echelon teams. If the Lions win Sunday, that's some good validation. If the Cardinals win, that's exposing a weakness the "experts" didn't realize.

 

[GuernseyCard]

If we win, we'll have tie breakers against the Detroit, Dallas and Philly. Could be of consequence.

 

[exgi20]

I'm happy for Detroit that they have such a well-regarded defense, but that, too, is a reflection of the level of competition. Going into the game in Dallas, everyone knew that Dallas had a top notch running game. But that was because they hadn't faced the Cardinals.

Detroit's defense is top notch against primarily lower echelon teams. If the Lions win Sunday, that's some good validation. If the Cardinals win, that's exposing a weakness the "experts" didn't realize.

Not quite sure I agree with this. Right now 4 of the top 10 rushing teams , my Lions have shut down. Jets 3, Saints 6, Dolphins 7 and Vikings 10.

 

[GuernseyCard]

Not quite sure I agree with this. Right now 4 of the top 10 rushing teams , my Lions have shut down. Jets 3, Saints 6, Dolphins 7 and Vikings 10.

Hard to imagine that either running game will be the deciding factor.

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

Cards will beat the Lions. That is all.

 

[Proteus]

I'm happy for Detroit that they have such a well-regarded defense, but that, too, is a reflection of the level of competition. Going into the game in Dallas, everyone knew that Dallas had a top notch running game. But that was because they hadn't faced the Cardinals.

Detroit's defense is top notch against primarily lower echelon teams. If the Lions win Sunday, that's some good validation. If the Cardinals win, that's exposing a weakness the "experts" didn't realize.

It's a lot easier to shut down a team's running game when there's no threat from their passing game. Weeden's an awful quarterback that the defense doesn't have to worry much about.

The Lions held the Packers to 7 points and 223 yards of offense.

 

[jbeecham]

The Lions win against the Packers is impressive. The Packers offense can be dynamic, but they really don't have a quality win yet... their best win was over Miami (6-4). The Pack has lost to Seattle, Detroit & New Orleans and they've beaten the Bears (2x), Jets, Vikings & Panthers (all sub .500 teams).

GB has to have the easiest schedule in the NFL & all the national experts are ignoring it & jumping on their jockstrap. They only have 3 tough games against winning teams left on their schedule (Philly, New England & Detroit). This season was basically gift wrapped for GB to make the playoffs. The rest of their games are Vikings, Falcons, Bills & Bucs.

Edit: Detroit plays basically the same schedule, except they have to play us instead of Seattle (unlucky them), but they also got the Giants instead of the Eagles (much easier game). Detroit only has 5 tough opponents scheduled this season: GB twice, New Orleans, Arizona & New England. We've already played as many tough games in our 1st 9 games as they have on their entire schedule... SD, SF, Denver, Philly & Dallas, plus we still have Detroit, Seattle 2x, KC & SF again. That's 11 tough games against playoff caliber teams... and yet we're 8-1 right now and our only loss is to SuperBowl Losing Denver. It's not like we lost to Carolina or Buffalo.

This is why I believe the Cards can & will win against Detroit... they've been tested against quality teams & found a way to win. It wasn't always pretty, but they got the job done. Not having Carson Palmer makes it a lot tougher, but Stanton can play well enough for us to beat anyone if our defense is playing well.

 

[BigRedRage]

Not quite sure I agree with this. Right now 4 of the top 10 rushing teams , my Lions have shut down. Jets 3, Saints 6, Dolphins 7 and Vikings 10.

Along with the fact that our offense is not among the NFL elite so stopping our offense is not exactly a measuring stick like stopping the colts, broncos and etc.

 

[jbeecham]

Along with the fact that our offense is not among the NFL elite so stopping our offense is not exactly a measuring stick like stopping the colts, broncos and etc.

Everyone talks about the Cardinals giving up a ton of passing yards (worst in the NFL for a little while), but really we just had 2 really bad games that skewed the averages. We gave up big yards to the Broncos (2nd in passing) & Eagles (5th). Without those 2 games, our passing defense is ranked 8th in the NFL (obviously I understand it doesn't work that way) and we're probably the #2 or 3 best defense overall.

The Denver game was close until they knocked out Stanton with a concussion. Once our 3rd string QB Logan Thomas came in & struggled then the team simply gave up. It's the only time I've seen them stop competing this season. I don't know if they were gambling trying to make big plays & got burned or if they just simply lost their belief that they could win.

The Eagles threw the ball 62 times for 411 yards, but only scored 20 pts. They marched up & down the field that day, but the defense came up with big stops (2 ints & 1 fumble) and forced them to try 2 FGs. It wasn't a good game by our defense, but they came up big when we needed them most and then of course we hit the 75 yard bomb to Smokey for the lead. Then our defense stopped them 4x in the red zone to secure the victory.

 

[BigRedRage]

Everyone talks about the Cardinals giving up a ton of passing yards (worst in the NFL for a little while), but really we just had 2 really bad games that skewed the averages. We gave up big yards to the Broncos (2nd in passing) & Eagles (5th). Without those 2 games, our passing defense is ranked 8th in the NFL (obviously I understand it doesn't work that way) and we're probably the #2 or 3 best defense overall.

The Denver game was close until they knocked out Stanton with a concussion. Once our 3rd string QB Logan Thomas came in & struggled then the team simply gave up. It's the only time I've seen them stop competing this season. I don't know if they were gambling trying to make big plays & got burned or if they just simply lost their belief that they could win.

The Eagles threw the ball 62 times for 411 yards, but only scored 20 pts. They marched up & down the field that day, but the defense came up with big stops (2 ints & 1 fumble) and forced them to try 2 FGs. It wasn't a good game by our defense, but they came up big when we needed them most and then of course we hit the 75 yard bomb to Smokey for the lead. Then our defense stopped them 4x in the red zone to secure the victory.

I was talking our offense vs Detriots Defense..

 

[jbeecham]

Sorry Big Red, I wasn't really replying to your post. I just saw "stopping the Broncos" & went on a tangent