Today at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, the Denver Broncos will play against the Arizona Cardinals. As we all know (unless you live in a cave), the Cardinals have started their season 3-0 thanks to solid play on both sides of the ball and great coaching. Meanwhile, the Broncos are 2-1 due to their offense blowing through the gates early and letting their defense close the game for them. While this Denver team isn’t like last year’s offensive juggernaut, they still have put up at least 20 points in every game and they took it to the reigning Super Bowl champions in Seattle.

Denver will also have Wes Welker for more than 4 days, who should have a bigger impact than he did against Seattle Seahawks. I will say though, if Tyrann Mathieu is 90-100 percent healthy, Welker should have some trouble. The question I really have is, will Demaryius Thomas be hundred percent? If he is (which I believe he will be), he’ll be a big part of the game plan. While Denver’s offense as had some issues, the defense has been solid, causing turnovers, sacks and stops.

It should be interesting to see how this defense plays in the second half against the Cards who are notorious for being a better second half team. I think since Denver had a bye week, Manning should been well prepared for the Cardinals defense, however, Arizona also had a bye week so they should be ready to play each other.

The Cardinals have Drew Stanton starting for the third week in a row and though it might seem like it’ll hurt them, he has been playing fantastically well the last two weeks. The team’s offense hasn’t suffered and he hasn’t made that many mistakes to speak of. The team will also have Andre Ellington to start and with this addition, I’m starting to think that we will have a shootout on our hands. With Brown, Floyd and Fitzgerald all healthy, Denver will have trouble trying to figure out how to deal with this offense. The defense has also been playing well but the secondary hasn’t been playing to its full potential, being ranked 18th (244.7 yards per game) against the pass. While they are 4th against the run and 5th overall, the pass defense must step up into order for the Cards to win.

If this game was at Arizona, I would pick the Cardinals to win 31-27. However, I believe Denver will do what they have done the first two weeks, build a 24 point lead, lose some of it, and instead of not scoring at all, they will score a late fourth quarter touchdown to end the game with the Broncos winning 31-27.

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