The undefeated Cardinals against the angry Browns? Sign me up

When the 2021 Cleveland Browns schedule came out, the first game I immediately circled was the Week 14 matchup on December 12 against the Baltimore Ravens. That game may very well be the game that decides who wins the AFC North.

Although, it appears the Cincinnati Bengals might have something to say about that. But there’s a second game that I circled, and that’s this week’s game against the undefeated Arizona Cardinals.

Coming into this Week 6 matchup, was I expecting the Cardinals to be undefeated? No, I wasn’t. Then again, I don’t think many experts were expecting this either. But you know what? That only adds to the intrigue of this game.

At this moment, the Browns are a 3.5 point favorite and have a 59 percent chance of winning. When looking at the money lines, Cleveland is a -180 favorite and Arizona is a +155 underdog. The over/under is set at 48.5, my recommendation would be to take the under.

Had it not been for the addition of the 17th game this season, these two teams wouldn’t be playing each other until the 2023 season. Since the Cardinals are in the NFC West, the Browns only see them once every four years.

These two teams last played each other in Week 15 of the 2019 season in the desert. The Cardinals won that game 38-24. Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray was 19-of-25 for 219 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Meanwhile, Cleveland quarterback Baker Mayfield was 30-of-43 for 247 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.

Sunday’s matchup from FirstEnergy Stadium marks the second time that Murray and Mayfield will be squaring off against each other. The two quarterbacks share a lot of respect for each other, however, since they both went to Oklahoma and they both won the prestigious Heisman Trophy. So more likely than not, they have a bit of a personal rivalry. Granted, the two probably won’t say anything about it.

We got a few interesting pieces of news during the week which could make a huge impact on this game. First, the Browns lost Nick Chubb due to a calf injury. That means Cleveland won’t be able to unleash their two-headed monster of Chubb and Kareem Hunt. That could be a bit of an advantage for Arizona because they won’t have to worry about which running back is on the field for the Browns.

As for the Cardinals, they will be without their head coach Kliff Kingsbury as he tested positive for COVID-19. That could be the thing that really tips the scale in the Browns’ favor.

There’s also an interesting wide receiver battle going on. On the Cleveland side, you’ve got Odell Beckham Jr. and Donovan Peoples-Jones who just came off his best game of the season. Then on the Arizona side, you’ve got DeAndre Hopkins and A.J. Green. The Browns should be very familiar with Green because he used to play for a divisional rival in the Cincinnati Bengals.

Last week against the Los Angeles Chargers in SoFi Stadium, the Browns put 42 points. Is that a sign of things to come or was that just an anomaly? We’ll have to wait and see on that one. But this week’s game against the Cards figures to be a shootout similar to the game against the Bolts last week.

Maybe not quite as high scoring since the current weather forecast for Sunday’s game as the winds are going to be in the 20s. Thus it could be more of a running style of game, which could favor Cleveland despite not having Chubb.