The Arizona Cardinals find themselves in a potentially season-defining game in Week 8. They have the opportunity to get back to .500 with a win against a 5-1 Minnesota Vikings team.
The NFC West is wide open, with the 4-3 Seattle Seahawks currently in first place. They’ll be playing the 6-1 New York Giants, so there’s certainly an opportunity to get even with them record-wise.
If the Cardinals win this game, they are in a great position to make the playoffs in a weak NFC conference. It could also have implications on whether or not they make a trade for an impact player the following Monday, which is the day before the deadline.
Let’s dive into what should be an exciting matchup.
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Arizona's offense vs. Minnesota's defense
The Vikings spent the majority of their offseason beefing up the defensive side of the ball, as it has been their crutch the past few seasons. With the firepower Minnesota has offensively, this is where the Cardinals must be efficient.
Minnesota’s secondary is led by former Cardinal icon Patrick Peterson, who is off to a great start to the season. Peterson hasn’t given up a touchdown this season and is allowing a 52.1% completion percentage when targeted.
For the Cardinals, DeAndre Hopkins must win this matchup. Their offense looked like their explosive self from last season with D Hop back in the lineup last Thursday, so the team is going to him to play at that level each week, particularly with Hollywood Brown out.
On the other side of the field, Kyler Murray should be able to find success targeting cornerback Cameron Dantzler, who is allowing a 116.4 rating when targeted.
Minnesota’s pass rush is certainly a concern with the likes of Danielle Hunter and Zadarius Smith. As a whole, the Vikings have 17 sacks on the season and are pressuring quarterbacks on 32.1% of snaps.
This could be problematic without Rodney Hudson, who is still working through a knee injury and will miss this game. Having Hopkins won’t make much of a difference if Murray won’t have time to throw, so perhaps the Cardinals operate more out of the pistol, which they had success doing last week.
Minnesota's offense vs. Arizona's defense
Vance Joseph’s defense has performed admirably to this point of the season and could be in line for some reinforcements by way of trades on Monday.
In particular, Joseph and the Cardinals have done an outstanding job limiting teams’ No. 1 receiver, those being Davante Adams, Cooper Kupp and A.J. Brown. They’ll need more of the same this week when they face Justin Jefferson.
The Cardinals have the top-rated defense against No. 1 receivers this season, per Football Outsiders.
— Kyle Odegard (@Kyle_Odegard) October 28, 2022
Jefferson is averaging over 100 receiving yards per game and is quickly turning into one of the best receivers in football. He’ll likely see a heavy dose of Byron Murphy.
The concern for the Cardinals is the Vikings don’t just have Jefferson. Adam Thielen is still a dangerous target and will have his opportunities in single coverage. With Murphy on Jefferson, Thielen will likely be handled by Marco Wilson.
It hasn’t been quite the statistical season for Kirk Cousins, who typically has some of the most impressive stats in football. This season, he’s thrown nine touchdown passes to five interceptions and has an 88.7 rating. The Cardinals will certainly have their chances to get more turnovers after last week’s three-interception outing.
This is quite the matchup, given the star power on this Vikings offense and the high level Vance Joseph’s unit has been playing at.
Injuries
Cardinals:
- RB James Conner (OUT)
- G Max Garcia (OUT)
- OLB Dennis Gardeck (OUT)
- C Rodney Hudson (OUT)
- CB Christian Matthew (OUT)
- LT D.J. Humphries (Questionable)
- CB Byron Murphy (Questionable)
- K Matt Prater (Questionable)
- RB Darrel Williams (Questionable)
Vikings:
- DT Jonathan Bullard (Questionable)
