{"id":7656,"date":"2010-09-16T14:26:21","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T19:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=7656"},"modified":"2010-09-16T14:26:21","modified_gmt":"2010-09-16T19:26:21","slug":"free-nfl-picks-falcons-vs-cardinals-betting-odds-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/free-nfl-picks-falcons-vs-cardinals-betting-odds-preview-7656\/","title":{"rendered":"Free NFL Picks: Falcons Vs Cardinals Betting Odds & Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Matt
Matt Ryan and the Falcons are 6.5 point home favorites on the point spread against the Arizona Cardinals<\/figcaption><\/figure>The Arizona Cardinals (1-0) and Atlanta Falcons (0-1) meet for the first time since the 2009 playoffs when the two NFC contenders square off in Week 2 of the regular season on Sunday.\u00a0 The major difference this time around obviously is that Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner will not be around for the rematch due to his recent retirement while Atlanta\u2019s Matt Ryan is longer a rookie like he was in the last meeting.<\/p>\n

The Falcons (-6.5 on the NFL betting odds) are counting on a big improvement offensively after a disappointing 15-9 loss in overtime at Pittsburgh last week.\u00a0\u00a0 Atlanta got just three Matt Bryant field goals against the Steelers and will need much better performances from Ryan \u2013 and more importantly running back Michael Turner \u2013 to earn a victory here in the team\u2019s home opener.<\/p>\n

Turner totaled only 42 rushing yards on 19 carries while Ryan completed 27 of 44 passes for 252 yards, including 13 for 111 yards to wide receiver Roddy White.\u00a0 The Falcons did play fairly well defensively against Pittsburgh outside of allowing the game-winning touchdown run of 50 yards by running back Rashard Mendenhall in OT.\u00a0 Without that long run, the Steelers rushed for 93 yards on 30 carries (3.1-yard average) and totaled 211 passing yards.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals did not fare much better despite winning their season opener 17-13 at St. Louis.\u00a0 New starting quarterback Derek Anderson did not look sharp even though his final numbers do not indicate his struggles, as he finished with 297 yards on 22-of-41 passing.<\/p>\n

Part of the problem was that wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald was not in sync with Anderson, finishing with three catches for 43 yards even though he was targeted 15 times.\u00a0 One of those catches was a 21-yard touchdown grab that put Arizona in front for good, but it was fellow receiver Steve Breaston who totaled a team-high seven receptions for a career-high 132 yards.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald is still bothered by a sprained right knee that kept him out of the last three preseason games and requires a brace.\u00a0 He practiced fully on Wednesday and hopes to improve while running back Beanie Wells went through a limited workout after sitting out the win over the Rams due to a knee injury.\u00a0 Starting running back Tim Hightower carried most of the load in his place and lost two fumbles to St. Louis.\u00a0 The Cardinals will also be without wide receiver Early Doucet due to a sports hernia that will likely keep him out at least two weeks.<\/p>\n

As you know we offer free sports picks via our newsletter but occasionally throw some additional free winners out on the blog.\u00a0 You can get signed up for these predictions by visiting our free nfl picks page of the site.\u00a0 For the blog free play we reccomend taking a look at the Over 43 in Sunday’s contest.\u00a0 We made the number a little higher and while Arizona has lost four in a row at Atlanta, and the series between the two teams overall has been rather high-scoring.\u00a0 The OVER has cashed in six of the last seven regular-season meetings and seven of eight if you include the 30-24 win for the Cardinals in the playoffs two years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Arizona Cardinals (1-0) and Atlanta Falcons (0-1) meet for the first time since the 2009 playoffs when the two NFC contenders square off in Week 2 of the regular season on Sunday.\u00a0 The major difference this time around obviously is that Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner will not be around for the rematch due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":5425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[646,123,3015,2992,1772,1930,1922],"class_list":["post-7656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-falcons-cardinals-preview","tag-free-nfl-picks","tag-nfl-betting","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7656"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7699,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7656\/revisions\/7699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}