It is Daniel Jones vs. Kyler Murray!
The Arizona Cardinals will take a trip to the Meadowlands this Sunday to meet the 2-4 New York Giants. Both teams will be sending out their 2019 first-round quarterbacks to command their offenses. Giants quarterback Daniel Jones will look to bounce back from an awful performance in Week 6 on Thursday night against the undefeated New England Patriots, while Cardinals’ Kyler Murray is hoping to extend his winning streak to three games.
Here is your big preview for the game:
The return of two superstars
The Cardinals’ bottom-five ranked pass defense will welcome back All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson to the lineup after surrendering 356 pass yards and four touchdowns to Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan last Sunday. Peterson has completed his six-game suspension and will look to take the Cardinals defense back to its dominance.
In Peterson’s absence, Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph was forced to work with a very young secondary. As a result, he was often hesitant to press opposing receivers and kept his corners off the ball. This was evident against the Falcons last Sunday, for the majority of Matt Ryan’s passing yards were on methodical scoring drives, 10-15 yards at a time. Peterson’s return allows the Cardinals to become the aggressive 3-4 defense that they were under James Bettcher and Todd Bowles.
On the other side, Giants’ 2018 offensive rookie of the year Saquon Barkley will return after suffering an ankle injury about a month ago. Barkley is in the conversation for the best running back in all of football for good reason. His rookie campaign was historic, in which he totaled over 2,000 yards from scrimmage and 15 touchdowns. The Cardinals have been much better against stopping the rushing attack as opposed to 2018, but Barkley will be one of the defense’s toughest assignments all year.
Let’s take a closer look at the New York football Giants.
The Giants on offense
Obviously, the focal point of the Giants offense is Saquon Barkley. They’ll try to get him going early and often to take pressure off rookie quarterback Daniel Jones. Speaking of Jones, he’s thrown more interceptions (six) than touchdown passes (five) in what has been an otherwise promising start. Similar to Kyler Murray, Jones led an impressive comeback in his first NFL start. However, he’s struggled against two great defenses in the Vikings and Patriots.
The Giants were thin at receiver with Golden Tate’s suspension and Sterling Shepard’s injury, but it’s very possible both play this Sunday. Tate is back and looks as good as ever, and Shepard has practiced on a limited basis the past few days. Shepard and Tate both provide big-play abilities in the deep passing attack and with their abilities in the open field. One will be shadowed by Patrick Peterson (likely Tate), while the other will get rookie Byron Murphy. It’s not a guarantee that Shepard plays this Sunday, but he appears to be progressing through concussion protocol well.
Tight end Evan Engram will return to face the Cardinals defense ranked last against opposing tight ends. Engram is off to a great start to the 2019 season with 373 yards receiving on 33 receptions. Could the Cardinals tight end woes be solved by the return of Patrick Peterson? His presence on the field allows Vance Joseph to put a safety or cornerback on Engram, which was previously difficult to do given the lack of available corners.
The Giants have quietly done a great job building their offensive line, which was previously among the league’s worst. Standout players like LT Nate Solder, G Will Hernandez, and G Kevin Zeitler have made them a solid unit (yay-offensive line love!). The Cardinals could have a difficult time getting consistent pressure on QB Daniel Jones.
And now for the defense.
The Giants defense
The Giants were embarrassed defensively to open up the season, surrendering 35 points to Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys and 28 to Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills. It seems to be coming together as of late, especially after a strong outing against the New England Patriots on TNF. Former Cardinals defensive coordinator James Bettcher’s defense did a great job neutralizing the Patriots offense through the majority of the game. Eventually, they would break, partly due to their own offense’s inability to score.
Former Cardinal Markus Golden is having a great season. He has five sacks in six games and has been a constant disrupter for the Giants. Safety Antoine Bethea and DT Olson Pierre will also join Golden in facing their former team.
While the Giants have improved dramatically, they have still surrendered big outings to opposing quarterbacks. This should be music to the ears of QB Kyler Murray, who is coming off his NFC Offensive Player of the Week performance against the Falcons. As a matter of fact, NFL senior analyst Michael Fabiano named Murray his ‘start of the week’ in fantasy football this week. If you’ve got him, it may be a good idea to give him the start.
Final thoughts
The Cardinals need this victory badly once again. The NFC West is proving to be as good as advertised with the 49ers and Seahawks already at five wins. They’ll need to improve to win No. 3 to keep pace.
The Giants have an opening to move up in their division following the Cowboys’ embarrassing loss to the New York Jets. They need this one as much as the Cards.
See you all next week. Hopefully K1 will have extended his win streak to three.
Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Stitcher Radio.
