It’s a west coast showdown, ladies and gentlemen. We have TWO Monday Night Football games this week and, after the Baltimore Ravens and Tamp Bay Buccaneers kickoff at 8:15 PM ET, the Los Angeles Chargers and Arizona Cardinals will kickoff the late game at 9 PM ET on ESPN+ nationally and Fox 10 locally.

Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman will attempt to continue their ground and pound assault while Kyler Murray and the crew will try to extend plays and make magic happen. These teams rarely play and they have certainly not played under the new coaching regimes so we’ll need to dive in deep for our Los Angeles Chargers vs. Arizona Cardinals predictions.

Even if you just want to see the Chargers vs. Cardinals odds and have Chargers vs. Cardinals picks of your own, don’t forget to scroll down at the end to see how you can scoop up a $1,500 BetMGM Sportsbook sign-up bonus!

 

 

 

Chargers vs. Cardinals Predictions For NFL Week 7, Monday 10/21

As we mentioned, these teams are in different conferences so they do not play often. Prior to expansion of the NFL schedule, they would have only met every four years unless they both meet in the Super Bowl. And the Chargers have not played in the big game in almost 30 years now. However, the new expanded schedule calls for an additional inter-conference game so the Cardinals and Chargers will face off this year after having last played in 2022 and 2018. The 2022 game did see Justin Herbert face off against Kyler Murray in Arizona where the Chargers eeked one out 25-24.

The Chargers boast a 3-2 record having already had their bye week. They started out 2-0 but since have dropped two games to the Steelers and Chiefs before defeating the Broncos last week. The Cardinals are 2-4 after starting off with a fairly rough schedule. They beat the 49ers and Rams but lost to the Bills, Lions, Commanders, and Packers.

 

 

 

Los Angeles Chargers: Jim Harbaugh Smash Mouth Football

Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman told us what they were going to do. They moved on from the high flyers in Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Austin Ekeler, and Gerald Everett in favor of a smash mouth football approach. The Chargers are only attempted 25.4 passes per game which is good for dead last in the NFL. And it’s working to some degree - anytime you can play over .500 ball after firing the entire front office and jettisoning a bunch of star players, you have to be pleased. 

The defense has been stout for the Chargers, allowing the fewest points per game in the league at 13.2. Having an offense that slows the game to a crawl certainly helps. As does playing the Steelers, Raiders, Panthers, and Broncos. But they did hold the Chiefs to only 17 points which is certainly an accomplishment. The availability of star pass rusher Joey Bosa is in question for this game - something that Chargers fans have grown accustomed to.

 

 

 

Arizona Cardinals: Jekyll and Hyde Kyler Murray

We’ve had a couple different versions of Kyler Murray show up this year. We’ve had the version capable of throwing three touchdown passes or running for 80 yards. Then we’ve had the version that gets blown out by Washington and Green Bay, throwing for 142 and 214 yards. His chemistry with Trey McBride is clearly there but he’s yet to truly get on the same page as Marvin Harrison Jr outside of one big game. And, even then, Marv caught only four passes - they were just big plays.

On defense the Cardinals have been better than expected but still not great.It takes time to turn over a defense and this is only the second year for Jonathan Gannon. They have mostly struggled against the run where they rank 21st in DVOA per FTN Fantasy. They have allowed 153 yards per game on the ground which is the fourth most of any team in the NFL.

 

 

 

Chargers vs. Cardinals Odds, Spreads, Total & Betting Lines

As promised, the latest Chargers vs. Cardinals odds can be found below courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook:

 

 

 

Chargers vs. Cardinals: Under 44 (-110 at BetMGM Sportsbook)

It would be one thing if the Cardinals offense was firing on all cylinders. But they have averaged 16 points over their last four games. And getting Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison on the same page isn’t easy while MHJ has been out the last two weeks of practice with a concussion.

It might not be entirely Harrison’s fault either - Kyler Murray has completion percentage of only 31.8% on passes of 20+ yards which is good for 24th in the league behind guys like Will Levis and Justin Fields (who was recently benched). In fact, Kyler has not had a completion percentage over 30% in either of the last two years either which is odd considering he was top 5 in the league at 46.1% in 2021.

We know that the Chargers want to strangle the life out of this matchup with the run game and the defense. As we mentioned, they even held the Chiefs to 17. If the Cardinals are also playing dink and dunk football on the other side without Kyler pushing the ball down the field, I don’t know how we are going to get to 44 points. We’ll take the under.

 

 

 

Chargers vs. Cardinals Injury Report & Latest News

Finally, let’s take a quick look at the projected starting lineups for both teams heading into tonight’s matchup:

LAC Chargers

ARI Cardinals

 

 

 

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