Cardinals at Lions – Week 15

The Arizona Cardinals come to town today to take on the Detroit Lions.  The Cards can clinch the NFC West with a victory over the Lions.  They lost last week on Monday night, mostly through their own mistakes, and should be looking for an easy win today in Motown.

QB Matthew Stafford will be out today for the Lions meaning that perennial loser, Daunte Culpepper, will get the starting nod.  Culpepper has never won a game in Detroit.  He’s scored 1 touchdown and thrown 4 picks in his last two starts.  He has a sickly QB rating of 56.9 in those two games and has no business taking the field for the Lions ever again.  He was a stop gap at best but has worn out his welcome and shown that he no longer has any talent.  The coaching staff must really hate Drew Stanton to not give him a chance today.  These last 3 games are an audition for a lot of players and Stanton needs that shot to show the coaches he’s worth having around and can fill in as the #2 in the future.  Culpepper, on the other hand, is finished, washed up, sucks.  Come on Jimmy, give Drew a chance.

Kevin Smith is on IR so Maurice Morris will get the start today with Aaron Brown and Jerome Felton behind him.  Cedric Peerman, who was called up from the practice squad, may get to play today if Brown can’t go due to a knee injury.

Going through the list, offense, defense and special teams, I can’t see the Lions having an advantage in any of those categories against Arizona.  The Cards are looking towards the playoffs and their way there lies through Detroit.  Kurt Warner always comes out strong after a loss and today will be no exception.

INJURY REPORT

DETROIT LIONS

OUT
LS Don Muhlbach
DOUBTFUL
QB Matthew Stafford, DE Andre Fluellen
QUESTIONABLE
RB Aaron Brown, WR Dennis Northcutt, WR Calvin Johnson, DE Dewayne White, S Louis Delmas
PROBABLE
DT Joe Cohen, DT Grady Jackson, P Nick Harris

ARIZONA CARDINALS

OUT
OT Mike Gandy, LB Will Davis, K Neil Rackers
QUESTIONABLE

WR Larry Fitzgerald, DE Kenny Iwebema, CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, LB Gerald Hayes
PROBABLE

RB Tim Hightower, CB Michael Adams, P Ben Graham

Vegas has the odds at 14 points in favor of Arizona with the O/U at 47 points which would put the final score at around 31-17.  I don’t believe the Lions can score 14 with Culpepper starting and playing the whole game and don’t think the secondary can keep the Cards to that low a score if Warner is on fire today.  Arizona 45 – Lions 10.

As usual, the best place for game time conversation and play-by-play game thread is over at SBNation’s Detroit Lions blog - Pride of Detroit.