Arizona Cardinals

Cardinals at Bills: Odds, trends, and more

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Two teams trending in the opposite direction are set to square off Sunday. The Arizona Cardinals play the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field in Buffalo, NY.

The Cardinals haven’t had a losing season since they last faced the Bills, in 2012, when they lost 19-16. Meanwhile, the Bills proceeded to fire Doug Marrone after winning nine games in 2014. It was their first winning season since 2004.

Marrone quit after the season and the Rex Ryan experiment continues to look bad. Quite honestly, it’s been flat out embarrassing. A win against the Cardinals could go a long way against the Cardinals for Ryan, but at this point, I believe Ryan is on a week-to-week thread with the team, but maybe not. I’m no Adam Schefter.

Regardless, in order to GET a win against the Cardinals, they’ll need a much better effort from each side of the ball than they’re getting. Against the Ravens in Week 1, the offense was flat. Come Week 2? Vice versa. The Jets couldn’t stop the deep ball as quarterback Tyrod Taylor picked apart the Jets secondary. But the 31 points they put up weren’t enough for a victory as the defense gave up 37. I guess scoring 31 points isn’t enough to keep around your offensive coordinator either, but that’s for a different day.

Per AZ Central, Ryan is hoping for an off day from Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer. Maybe instead of praying for your opponents quarterback to have an off day, you should defend him, in nature forcing him to have a bad game. But oh well Rex, oh well.

Odds

Line: Arizona (-3.5)

Over/Under: 47

Bruce Arians or Rex Ryan? Well, that’s an easy one. Arizona has averaged just over 30 points per game in their first two contests. Their touchdown red zone rate is 75 percent and Buffalo is giving up a touchdown 50 percent of the time their opponents get inside their 20. A crafty offense in Arizona should make this one over by halftime.

I will say this though, Ryan is on the hot seat and is in desperation to hang onto a job that very well could be his last head coaching gig in the NFL. Being desperate leads to some crazy things, as we all know. So if Ryan and his Bills team somehow come out of this game 1-2, crazier things have happened.