Arizona Cardinals vs Indianapolis Colts Picks and Odds Week 16
Arizona Cardinals vs Indianapolis Colts Betting Preview
WagerTalk NFL handicapper Andy Lang offers his Arizona Cardinals vs Indianapolis Colts NFL Week 16 Christmas night betting preview. At the time of posting, the Cardinals have climbed to a 2-point home favorite over the visiting Colts, with the total sitting at 48.5 points.
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| NFL Week 16 | Betting Notes |
|---|---|
| Point Spread: | Arizona Cardinals -2 vs Indianapolis Colts |
| Total: | 48.5 Points |
| Game Time: | 8:15pm ET / 5:15pm PT on Saturday, December 25 |
| Stadium: | State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona |
| TV: | NFL Network |
Arizona Cardinals vs Indianapolis Colts Predictions
A big game as both teams are major players in the playoff race in their respective conferences, and the Colts are on the upswing, and the Cardinals appear to be on the downswing. Each team has a much different outlook after this touch matchup.
The Colts will be looking at two easier games after this as they face the Raiders and Jaguars to finish the season, and those will certainly be two games they will be big favorites in. The Cardinals must travel to Dallas and then get division rival Seattle after this game, so they will face three opponents in a row after two straight losses to the Rams and Lions.
We’ll start with the slumping Cardinals who appear to have peaked early in the season as they opened up the season 7-0, but after injuries to Kyler Murray, Chase Edmonds and Deandre Hopkins they have lost two straight and are only 3-4 in their last 7.
The Cardinals were 7-0 ATS on the road before getting blown out on the road to Detroit, and the defense has looked very shaky as of late after looking like an elite defense early in the year. Giving up 30 points to the Rams and the Lions in back to back weeks is alarming when you’re going up against a Colts team who has scored 27 points or more in eight out of nine games.
The injury to Hopkins has certainly had an impact, but he hasn’t had a 100 yard game this season, so I’m not sure how essential he is, and there’s a chance Kyler Murray has returned from injury too soon. Against the Rams, he had no touchdowns and two interceptions, and while I think the early interception on a batted ball completely changed the outlook of that game, it’s too late in the season to have a letdown game against a team like Detroit.
The Colts are one of the hottest teams in the NFL right now winning seven out of nine with the two losses being an overtime game against Tennessee when they had Derrick Henry, and a one score game to a healthy Tampa Bay team. They have their identity on offense now…Jonathan Taylor and a dominant run game, Carson Wentz managing offense and not turning the ball over. Wentz has two games with over 1 interception this season, and they’ve lost both of those games.
The Colts’ defense has been improving throughout the season, and they now rank 14th in yards allowed per game. They’re ahead of the Rams and Bengals now which was almost unthinkable early in the season.
I’m going to take the Colts to beat Arizona on the road this week because the red flags that have popped up for Arizona are the exact weaknesses the Colts can exploit. The Colts depend on running the ball and Carson Wentz protecting the ball. The last two weeks the Rams threw for three TD’s and no INT’s and Sony Michel was able to rush for 79 yards as the only running back for Los Angeles. Last week against Detroit, the Lions threw for three TD’s and no INT’s and they rushed 34 times for 126 yards.
If the Cardinals can’t slow down Taylor, and can’t turnover Wentz it will be a long day for the Cardinals defense. The Colts defense is improving, and even though Arizona got Chase Edmonds back, they had no continuity as Edmonds rushed six times, Conner rushed eight games, and Murray rushed four times. The Colts appear to be confident in their game plan, the Cardinals do not, and the Colts are 5-1 this season ATS on the road and are 3-0 straight up in their last three road games winning them by a combined score of 102-33.
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Arizona Cardinals vs Indianapolis Colts Analysis from GoldSheet
After stalling when going 3-6 down the stretch a year ago, the same thing seems to be happening to the Cardinals, with that unbeaten mark into midseason now feeling like it was a couple of years ago as the Cards have lost 4 of 7 and maybe scraping the bottom when getting dominated last week by a Lions team (the Lions?) that entered the game with the worst record in the NFL.
Not sure coming back to Glendale is going to help, either, after losing three straight at home, and anyone from Indy spending Christmas in the Valley of the Sun likely inside State Farm Stadium, where visiting teams always get healthy support. As the case last season when laboring with a sore shoulder past midseason, Kyler Murray hasn’t looked the same since his midseason ankle injury which kept him out three weeks and has hindered his normally-swashbuckling style since his return, and without safety blanket DeAndre Hopkins (knee) until the playoffs, there’s no one to answer the Arizona SOS call.
Indy not worried about any of that, now alive again in the division race with the Titans faltering and all of a sudden sitting pretty in the AFC Wild Card picture after stopping Bill Belichick’s 7-game win streak last week. Already this season, Indy has won at places like San Francisco and Buffalo and has covered 8 of its last 11 with Jonathan Taylor (another 170 YR vs. the Patriots) continuing to run wild. Play Indianapolis.
Arizona Cardinals vs Indianapolis Colts Video Preview
WagerTalk NFL handicappers Drew Martin, Andy Lang and Andrew McInnis offer their Arizona Cardinals vs Indianapolis Colts betting preview.
WagerTalk Live Odds Screen
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