Look, I’m not going to sit here and sugarcoat this about Thursday night’s NFL game: It’s freaking terrible as the 2-4 Denver Broncos visit the 1-5 Arizona Cardinals. A scoreless tie would almost be fitting. The Broncos are short NFL Week 7 lines favorites.
Broncos at Cardinals NFL Week 7 Spread & Pick
Rookie LB @astronaut became the first @NFL rookie since 2015 to record three sacks in a game and just the fourth Bronco to do so in team history. 👊 pic.twitter.com/sqOxUK4KFu
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) 15 de octubre de 2018
- When: Thursday, 8:20 PM ET
- Where: State Farm Stadium, Glendale
- TV: Fox/NFL Network
- Radio: SiriusXM/NFL
- Live Stream: NFL League Pass
- NFL Week 7 Spread: Denver Broncos -2.5 (Total 40.5)
NFL Week 7 Parlay Picks
Weather Forecast
- Clear: 22°C/71°F
- Humidity: 49%
- Precipitation: 2%
- Cloud Cover: 0%
- Wind: 5 mph N
- Stadium Type:
All-Time Series
Denver leads 8-1-1, which includes a couple of games vs. the Cardinals when they were based in St. Louis. The teams last met in Denver in 2014 and the Broncos cruised to a 41-20 win. Peyton Manning threw for 479 yards and four touchdowns in joining the 500 TD club with Brett Favre. Since then, Tom Brady has joined and Drew Brees should this Sunday.
Demaryius Thomas set a franchise record with 226 yards on eight catches to go with two TDs. Manning, of course, is retired but Thomas is still around. Cards QB Drew Stanton was 11 for 26 for 118 yards before being knocked from the game on a hard hit by Von Miller in the third quarter. Stanton is gone but Miller is still terrorizing QBs for the Broncos.
Why Bet on Denver?
The Broncos had been the only team not to cover this year but that changed in Sunday’s 23-20 loss vs. the Rams on a late garbage-time TD. Case Keenum completed 25-of-41 passes for 322 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. It was Keenum’s second-straight 300-yard game, but really just inflated numbers. Keenum briefly checked out at the end of the first half as he was evaluated for a concussion, but he cleared. Keenum now has eight TD passes and eight picks – he had just seven picks all of last year with Minnesota.
Coach Vance Joseph said remains committed to Keenum as the Broncos’ starting quarterback. Second-year Chad Kelly came into a standing ovation from Broncos fans to kneel it out on the final play of the second quarter. Kelly was also tremendous in the preseason. Only Josh Allen and Marcus Mariota have worse passer ratings than Keenum.
Emmanuel Sanders caught 7-of-10 targets for 115 yards and a touchdown in the Broncos’ Week 6 loss. Demaryius Thomas caught 3-of-4 targets for 57 yards and a touchdown. Phillip Lindsay caught 6-of-7 targets for 48 yards, adding four carries for 18 additional yards.
Broncos left guard Ronald Leary suffered a torn Achilles’ in the loss to the Rams. He’s done for the season. Leary was replaced in the lineup by Max Garcia. The 29-year-old Leary has two more years left on his deal at $8.15 million annually. Starting right tackle Jared Veldheer has missed the past two weeks and likely won play Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Broncos defense is last in the league in run defense, allowing 161.3 yards rushing per game with 593 rushing yards allowed in the last two games combined (323 rushing yards by the Jets in Week 5 to go with 270 rushing yards by the Rams on Sunday).
Team Stats
Offense- Average Score For: 20.00
- Total Yards: 387.67
- Rush Yards: 124.17
- Passing Yards: 263.50
- Average Score Against: 25.67
- Total Yards: 403.83
- Rush Yards: 161.33
- Passing Yards: 242.50
Why Bet on Arizona?
The Cardinals were 27-17 losers at Minnesota on Sunday. Josh Rosen completed 21-of-31 passes for 240 yards with an interception. Rosen had some success early but flatlined in the second half. He was under constant pressures, taking four sacks. Rosen continued to lock on to Christian Kirk, who led the Cardinals with 77 yards. The Broncos considered taking Rosen with the No. 5 overall pick in this year’s draft and probably should have in retrospect. Rosen is now 0-3 as an NFL starter. On Sunday, he threw his first interception since he took over as the full-time quarterback in Week 4.
David Johnson rushed 18 times for 55 yards and a touchdown vs. the Vikings. Johnson’s struggles continued, but he managed to salvage his game with a late one-yard TD. He dropped a red-zone target, lost a fumble, and was stuffed on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line before his touchdown. Johnson’s pass game role remained small, finishing with just two catches for 15 yards.
Amazingly, Arizona is yet to gain 300 yards in a game this year. The Cardinals are ranked last in the league in yards, first downs, third-down conversions, third-down conversion percentage and time of possession, among other categories while sitting second-to-last in points scored.
Arizona rushed for just 61 yards on Sunday, giving the team 384 yards rushing through the first six weeks of the season, the fewest in the NFL. That’s also the fewest for the Cardinals since 2009 when they had 288 by Week 6 and 360 through their first six games. The Cardinals are also last in the NFL in rushing yards gained before the first contact.
To make matters worse, right guard Justin Pugh suffered a broken hand in Week 6. It’s possible Pugh can play with a cast, but if not Jeremy Vujnovich is his backup and he’s a downgrade.
Team Stats
Offense- Average Score For: 13.67
- Total Yards: 220.50
- Rush Yards: 64.00
- Passing Yards: 156.50
- Average Score Against: 23.17
- Total Yards: 394.34
- Rush Yards: 151.17
- Passing Yards: 243.17
Broncos at Cardinals NFL Week 7 Betting Trends
- Denver is 1-6-1 ATS in its last 8 games
- Denver is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games
- The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Denver’s last 5 games
- Arizona is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games at home
- Arizona is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games at home
- The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Arizona’s last 10 games
