Los Angeles Rams vs Arizona Cardinals Monday Night Football Bet Preview and Picks

Monday Night Football between the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals has the potential to be one of the best games of the NFL Week 14 slate.

With the Cardinals holding a two-game lead over the Rams in the NFC West standings, this game could decide whether the race in this division is over or if it is just getting started.

And with both offenses being incredibly potent in this matchup, there is plenty of entertainment value to be anticipated beyond the significance of the game.

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Los Angeles Rams

The LA Rams broke a three-game losing streak last week, taking their frustrations out on the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 37-7 victory. In that game, Matthew Stafford looked like the Matthew Stafford from early in the season, instead of the one who had been struggling as of late. This week, with the Rams being a two-point underdog on the road, the Rams will need another strong performance from their signal-caller.

Los Angeles will also need to find a way to slow down Kyler Murray if they want to win this game. The Rams allowed 37 points to the Cardinals in their Week 4 showdown, and they will not be able to get away with such a poor defensive showing again in this game.

Games like this one prompted the move to bring in Von Miller, who will need to apply pressure to Murray if the Rams want to win this game and reopen the NFC West race.

Arizona Cardinals

Arizona crushed the Chicago Bears last week on the road, scoring 33 points in the return of Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins to the field. Both stars had missed several recent games due to injuries, but the Cardinals survived those games nicely, as they enter the home stretch of their season with a 10-2 record.

Now, the question is whether Murray and Hopkins can lead the Cardinals to another offensive outburst against the Rams.

Murray was a very efficient 24/32 passing against the Rams in their previous meeting, throwing for 268 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. But his presence allowed the Cardinals to run the ball while the Rams were focused on everything that Murray brings to the table.

Arizona rushed for 216 yards against the Rams in their first matchup this season and will look for a similarly explosive offensive performance here in Week 14.

Keys to the Game

On the Rams’ side, the biggest key to this game is their defense. While the glamorous offenses on both sides are going to get the majority of the attention, the Rams will not be able to win a track meet against this Arizona offense. Instead, some early stops to set the tone will be necessary to get the Cardinals out of their rhythm and to let them know to expect a much more competitive game.

Arizona’s biggest key to this game is also on defense, in that they need to make the Rams beat them on the ground. Los Angeles is a team that clearly prefers to pass the ball, as no rusher on the Rams has hit 700 yards on the season yet.

If the Cardinals can arrange their coverages to force the Rams to try and run the ball more than usual, they could have just as much success as they did in their first win against Los Angeles.