Reunion in the Desert: Arizona Seeks to Extend Win Streak Over the Colts
The Indianapolis Colts (7-3) will head west and take on the Arizona Cardinals (6-4) on Sunday. It will be a reunion for Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, who served as the Colts former offensive coordinator/interim coach last season.
Sunday will represent the first time Arians will face the Colts this season and he’ll look to stay focused on football as his team is currently undergoing a three-game win streak and has its eyes on the postseason.
Bruce Arians
Arians has said getting ready for this game would be easy but you can’t discount the emotional aspect. He said via ESPN, “The prep will be easy. It’s seeing them that will be emotionally involved because it was such an emotional year last year. You’ll get through that hopefully in warmups. I was hoping this would never be on the schedule. Because there are too many emotional ties to what happened last year.”
The Colts’ defense will need to get ready for a hot Carson Palmer. Last week in the 27-14 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the seasoned quarterback went 30 for 42, 419 yards (second-best yardage in his career), two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
During the team’s last three games, Palmer has a 68.5 percent completion rate with six touchdowns and two interceptions. This compares to 60.5 percent completion, eight scores and 13 picks in his first seven games.
Unfortunately for Palmer, he doesn’t play well against the Colts, going 0-3 against them. He also has an 84.0 passer rating, four touchdowns and four picks in these games.
Palmer also has to deal with a weak offensive line which has allowed him to be sacked 27 times and throw 15 picks. He does however have two talented wide receivers, Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Floyd, to help him.
But this week, Palmer will look toward his defense to stop the Colts’ ground game. The Cardinals are ranked No. 2 in the league with 81.4 rushing yards given up each game and No. 9 for total yards allowed at 324.9. In this last three games, opponents have been held to 45.0 ground yards and 267 total yards.
For the Colts, they’ve been having problems getting out of the starting gate. While they’ve won their last three of four games, they’ll need to get off to a better start this week. In their Nov.3 game against the Houston Texans, they entered halftime behind 21-3 before winning 27-24 and last week against the Tennessee Titans, they bounced back by 24 points to get rid of a 14-0 first-quarter deficit to defeat the Titans, 30-27.
Andrew Luck
Colts quarterback Andrew Luck has had a few problems throwing picks (three against the St. Louis Rams in Week 10) but last week against the Titans he neither threw a pick nor a touchdown pass.
In the absence of wide receiver Reggie Wayne, the team leaned on running back Donald Brown against the Titans. He led the team’s offense with his 80 yards and two touchdowns in this second half from 14 carries.
Fellow back Trent Richardson appears to be a bust but he still has the confidence of his coach, Chuck Pagano. This comes as Richardson had eight carries and 22 yards against the Titans. To date over six games, he has 272 yards (2.8 yards per carry) and two touchdowns.
For the game, Indianapolis had 137 ground yards but whether they employ this on Sunday may change thanks to the Cardinals’ defense. Look for wide receiver Ty Hilton to step up for the passing game.
With a Sunday win, the Colts will be one game closer to winning the AFC South but need a second win on Dec.1 against the Titans to make it a done deal along with a top seed and a playoff bye.
It won’t happen this week as the Cardinals will get the win (-3, 44.5 o/u).
In other AFC South games…
It’s the Houston Texan (-10, 44 o/u) vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars  and the Titans (-1, 42 o/u) vs. the Oakland Raiders.
