The second leg of the double header in the Monday Night Football in Week 7 of the NFL 2024 season takes us to the desert as the Arizona Cardinals welcome the Los Angeles Chargers to close out an entertaining pair of games.
These two teams have begun their seasons is different directions with the Cardinals 2-4 for their year while the Chargers returned from their bye to pick up a win last week which moved them to 3-2 for their campaign.
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals always looked like they were going to have to do it tough this season with the San Francisco 49ers in their division but the Niners haven’t really come to the party so the fact that Arizona are still trailing in the NFC West might be seen as a chance missed, especially when one of the two wins that they have secured came against San Francisco. The other was against Los Angeles Rams, so Arizona have been fine in their own division but poor away from it.
The thing that the Cardinals need to improve on is their defence. In three of their four defeats they have conceded 34 points or more so the defence hasn’t really given them a chance. When their defence has played well they have generally won matches. There is certainly a case to be made that the schedule hasn’t been kind to the Cardinals as the Los Angeles Rams were the only team they have played who had a losing record going into the weekend.
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Los Angeles Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers head to the desert 3-2 for the season but already that means that a wildcard is likely to be the best that they can get out of their campaign because the Kansas City Chiefs at 6-0 don’t look for stopping in their division. That will certainly be the case if the Chargers are unable to win this match. They are clearly a work in progress under Jim Harbaugh but if they are able to go on the road and win on a Monday night that would suggest that they are making the necessary improvement.
To be fair to the Chargers, they have only been beaten by the Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers this season and both of those are on top of their division so that isn’t necessarily a disgrace or anything. The one thing you would say is that they have only beaten Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders and the Carolina Panthers so they certainly haven’t beaten anything resembling a great offense. We might see a little more here of whether their schedule has padded their record or whether there is a decent side in the making.
Betting
I’m not really sure how I see this one going. I do think that the Los Angeles Chargers are a work in progress and are progressing well under Jim Harbaugh but I’d like them to beat a good offensive side before I believe that they are to be trusted. On the flip side of that, Arizona Cardinals aren’t really convincing either from a consistency point of view, although at least when they have played well they have generally won. I don’t really see much value in either though.
One thing we can take from the opening five games that the Bolts have had under Jim Harbaugh is that they are clearly looking to control the time of possession with the running game and that makes me think that JK Dobbins can go off here. He has a rushing yards line of 79.5 which feels low anyway when you consider how much of the ball he is going to see but particularly against an Arizona defence which is giving up 153 yards per game on the ground. I like his over here.
Tips
Back JK.Dobbins – Over 79.5 rushing yards for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betfair
