NFL GAME ODDS

Arizona Cardinals vs Oakland Raiders

The Cardinals of Arizona have to hit the road this week after a short rest to travel up to Oakland to face the Raiders. The 0-5 Raiders are a mess under Art Shell and are still sore from the beating taken by the Broncos last week. Arizona however, even with one win, must feel even worse. On Monday night, Dennis Green's teams gave away a 20-3 lead to a whipped Chicago team who came back in dramatic fashion to hand the Cards their fifth loss without even scoring an offensive touchdown. In what can only be dubbed the Desperation Bowl…well, somebody's got to win.

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The Cardinals will be starting Rookie and now full time quarterback Matt Leinart. Leinart is serviceable at quarter back and against sub par defenses (Oakland) he can even put up some points. It is unlikely he will benefit from Larry Fitzgerald returning this week, but with Edgerin James being able to find running room that was lacking versus Chicago and Anquan Boldin simply out matching Raider DBs, look for Matt to pass deep and often. The story will not be so much if Arizona can score enough, it will be if they are able to score more than they allow the Raiders to.

For Oakland, they have to stop squandering the running talent of LaMont Jordan. Jordan came into this season with hopes of contending for the AFC rushing title…that has not happened. While he does average 3.7 yards per carry, he has only one trip to the endzone in 2006 and QB Andrew Walter has not helped take pressure off the running game by throwing for many first downs. In fact, star WR Randy Moss, who openly asked for a trade last week, has a mere 17 receptions through 5 games and is growing more frustrated with a team that seems uncommitted to getting better. The good news, heck they are playing Arizona, Moss will catch a couple TDs and the field should look much less crowded for LaMont Jordan than it did against the stout Denver defense. Look for two mediocre teams to shine offensively due to the other's defensive ineptitude.

Game Pick:Arizona -3