New England Faces Tough Opening Game at Arizona

Week 1 Sunday Night Football in the NFL features the New England Patriots visiting the Arizona Cardinals. Top sportsbooks have the current line with Arizona favored by 7 points and the over/under point total sitting on 44.5.

For just the first time since 2001, Tom Brady will not be starting as the New England quarterback when the Patriots open their season against Arizona Sunday night. The New England star quarterback will miss the first four games of the regular season after being suspended by the league.

Jimmy Garappolo will take Brady’s place under center starting his first NFL regular season game. New England under Brady has won the AFC East title in 12 of the last 13 seasons. Garappolo hopes that the time he has spent studying Brady will help him against a tough Cardinals defense.

Arizona finished last season 13-3 and reached the NFC title game only to lose to Carolina. Carson Palmer returns as the Cardinals signal caller along with every top skills position player from last season. Last season the Arizona offense was No. 1 in yards gained at 408 per game.

Defensively, the Cardinals picked up Chandler Jones a defensive end from New England to bolster their pass rush.

Garappolo will have an arsenal of receivers to throw at if time permits. Rob Gronkowski the All-Pro tight end returns. He caught 72 passes last season with 11 touchdowns. Julian Edelman missed seven games but still managed 61 receptions with seven touchdowns.

New England may try to establish the rush with LeGarrette Blount running early and often.

On defense, the Patriots lost their best all around defender in Rob Ninkovich a pass rusher who has been suspended for the first four games of the season for testing positive to a substance banned by the league.

Palmer threw for 4,671 yards and 35 touchdowns last season for the Cardinals. Larry Fitzgerald, John Brown and Michael Floyd return as Palmer’s three top targets.

David Johnson will start as the running back this season. In his rookie season last year, Johnson had 13 touchdowns

Arizona at 30.6 points a game and New England at 29.1 points per game were second and third in scoring in the NFL last season.

Fitzgerald caught 109 receptions last season with 9 touchdowns for Arizona.

On Tuesday, Eric Rowe a cornerback was picked up by the Pats from the Eagles.

Prediction: Lean heavily on the Cardinals here. This could be a rout.