The Arizona Cardinals will host the Baltimore Ravens on NFL Monday Night Football tonight with the Cardinals looking to tighten their grip atop the NFC West division. The Ravens meanwhile are staring into the abyss and come into today's Week 7 game on 1-5 looking for only their second win of the season so far. The game has a scheduled start time of 8.30 p.m. ET and takes place from the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The game can be watched online through ESPN live stream via the link below.
The Cardinals want to maintain their advantage at the to of the NFC West with another win today. They are currently on 4-2, and know a loss against the Ravens today would open the door for the St Louis Rams (3-3) to pull up alongside them.
Even though the Seattle Seahawks have been firing hot and cold so far this season, the Cardinals will still be weary of the threat posed by them as the season grinds on. Surely the Seahawks will iron out the kinks in their armor soon, and when they do they will be making a charge for the division. That means the Cardinals must take full advantage while the Seahawks are struggling, and make sure they capitalize on Seattle's stuttering form.
The Ravens meanwhile are on 1-5 and have next to no chance of getting near the on-fire Cincinnati Bengals who are perfect on 6-0. However, Baltimore will still want to play for pride this season and will be hoping to claim their second win of the season today, which would tie them with the AFC North's third placed side, the Cleveland Browns.
The Cardinals will want to enjoy today as it is their only home game through a six week stretch. The Ravens also are a team that has been put on the road a lot through the first half of the season; this will be their fifth game on the road in their opening seven games, and have had to go back and forth to the West Coast three times already this season.
That's not something lost on Arizona coach Bruce Arians who has said, "I'd rather have ours [schedule] than Baltimore's. They've been back and forth three times to the West Coast."
That tough schedule has made it difficult for them, and in a game where sometimes fine margins can make all the difference, the Ravens have fallen just short too many times this season. Of Baltimore's five losses so far this season, none of them have been by more than six points. Even their one win was in overtime, and amazingly came against a strong Pittsburgh Steelers side.
The manner and the closeness of their five losses will have the Ravens cursing their schedule, and if the fine margins had played out slightly differently then Baltimore could be looking at a very different season right now, and could very easily have been above .500.
Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer said, "When you watch them on film, this is a good football team. You can't look at their record and think anything."
He added, "They just lost a weird one to Cleveland at home. They lost a weird one in Oakland. They were coming back last week in San Francisco. With Cincinnati, it was back and forth, back and forth, I think it ended up being a four-point game."
Nevertheless this is a results business and so far the Ravens have not gotten the results they've needed. For them this is a must win, but similarly for the Cardinals, games like these will also be must wins in their minds if they are to take the division this year.
Today's NFL Monday Night Football between the Arizona Cardinals and the Baltimore Ravens has a scheduled start time of 8.30 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the ESPN network or online through live stream on ESPN.
