Can The Arizona Cardinals Optimus Prime #21 Stop Megatron Calvin Johnson?

As Week Eleven kicks off, the league leading 8-1 Arizona Cardinals are getting set to host the NFC North leading Detriot Lions. That means that Megatron, Calvin Johnson is coming to town.

Drew Stanton will once again be starting at QB for the Arizona Cardinals following the unfortunate ACL injury suffered by Carson Palmer against the Rams last week. But before everyone hits the panic button let’s remember that Stanton has already won games against San Francisco and the Giants and was in a shoot out with Denver before getting hurt himself. Anyone still unconvinced should rewatch the touchdown pass from Stanton to John Brown last week, to see that Bruce Arians is not going to take it easy with Stanton instead of Palmer under centre.

Back to Megatron and I pose this question. How do you defeat Megatron? Well Hollywood tells us that to defeat Megatron you need a Prime. Just so happens that we have one of those, wearing the Prime Time number 21 in Patrick Peterson. Fresh off his stunning pick six last week, Peterson going up against Calvin Johnson in quite possibly the best match up of the week. I believe that Prime Peterson will take down Megatron once more.

The Lions this year are finally a team of more than just the deep ball to Megatron. Golden Tate has come in and put up some big numbers while Johnson was out. Joique Bell has also put together a decent season and I think most observers would put him above Reggie Bush as the backfield threat for the Lions. Cardinals secondary stars Antonio Cromartie and Tyrann Mathieu will be relishing the chance to keep Tate quiet. We all know Tate from his Seahawks days and he does like to talk.

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Stanton will also need to be watchful, as the Lions have a surprisingly good defense themselves. Ndamukong Suh can be a one man wrecking crew on the DL and is playing for his future in a contract year. Nick Fairley will be missed but Ziggy Ansah is stepping up and DeAndre Levy is having a huge season at linebacker.

If Megatron is an all time great which we all know him to be, then we have to acknowledge that the Cardinals themselves have a receiver who will go down as one of the greats as well. Larry Fitzgerald is 8 yards away from 12,000 career receiving yards and would be the second youngest receiver to achieve this feat. John Brown with 3 game winning touchdowns this season already may well be the quickest receiver in the league. Michael Floyd is a game winning receiver in his own right as well.

Andre Ellington will pose a threat to the Lions as a receiver out of the backfield as well as the threat of running the ball. If anyone saw the Lions first half at Wembley Stadium against Atlanta Falcons, you will see how the Lions can be caught out. The Lions are resilient though and have come back to win several games late on in the final minutes. Whilst the Cardinals currently lead the league in out scoring their opponents in the 4th quarter.

So this match up has all the signs of a great game. Two offense’s capable of racking up the points and two defense’s ranked towards the top of the standings and also two special teams units capable of big plays, although the Lions have had their Field Goal issues this season. The noise inside Universiry of Arizona stadium should cause problems for Detroit, opposing team’s in the stadium have racked up over 20 false starts which is even more than the so called loud stadiums in Seattle and Kansas City.

This should be close but with that home field advantage and the aggressive play calling by Arians I belive the Arizona Cardinals will take the W and move to 9-1.

If the Kansas City Chiefs could beat Seattle at Arrowhead as well that would make just about the perfect weekend. Hopefully leaving us a three game lead in the division. Wouldn’t the BirdGang love that?

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