Arizona Cardinals vs. Denver Broncos: Complete Week 5 Preview for Arizona

It’s Week 5, which means the Arizona Cardinals will travel to play the Denver Broncos in what looks like the matchup of the week. A quarter of the 2014 NFL season is gone, and the Cardinals (3-0) are one of two remaining undefeated teams—the other being the Cincinnati Bengals, who also just enjoyed a bye week.

It appears the Broncos (2-1), who, like the Cardinals and Bengals, are coming off their bye week, may get lucky and have to deal with Drew Stanton at quarterback instead of starter Carson Palmer.

The man head coach Bruce Arians traded for upon arrival last season has not practiced all week, meaning he is at the very least doubtful for Sunday’s game in Denver. It would not be surprising if Arians does the same thing he did for the San Francisco 49ers game and announce Stanton as Sunday’s starter on Friday in order to allow the media to move on to relevant questions about the game.

Here is your in-depth preview of the Cardinals as they face the Broncos.

Cardinals’ Week 3 Review

Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

The old cliche is that football is a team game. Everyone knows that, yet we all hear it repeated almost weekly by someone filling air space because they have nothing better to say.

Well, it was a total team effort by the Cardinals when they beat their NFC West rivals, the 49ers, two weeks ago. Great run defense, timely offense and opportunistic special teams helped Arizona defeat an organization it had not beaten in nearly three calendar years.

Running back Andre Ellington set a career high with 18 carries, and though he gained only 62 yards on the afternoon (3.4 yards per carry), he was the bell-cow back Arians told everyone he could be this offseason.

Stanton was not great throwing the ball, but he didn’t need to be great. He needed to not turn the ball over and deliver big throws when needed, and he did just that. On the day, he completed 18 of 33 passes (54.5 percent) for 244 yards and two gigantic touchdowns to rookie receiver John Brown for a 98.5 passer rating.

The touchdowns—from 21 and 24 yards, respectively—put the Cardinals ahead in the third quarter, and the defense stepped up in the fourth to shut out yet another foe in the final frame. That makes three straight opponents to start the season that have not scored on the Cardinals in the fourth quarter.

If Peyton Manning and Co. are held scoreless in the fourth quarter Sunday, it would tie a Cardinals record for the most games to start a season not allowing a single point in the final frame (also did it in 1974 and 1940).

That will be a difficult task, as a Manning-led offense has been held scoreless in the fourth quarter just 45 times in the regular season in his career—at 243 games started, that’s an absurdly low 18.5 percent of games.

News and Notes

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Secondary Ready to Face Peyton

One thing about the “No Fly Zone” secondary in Arizona is they do not lack confidence. Safety Rashad Johnson is excited to face the future Hall of Fame quarterback and the best signal-caller of our generation, according to Kyle Odegard of AZCardinals.com:

"

Oh, man. As a defensive back, when you’re going up against an all-time great, it’s fun to go out and perform against him. You want to perform well. That’s something that will stick in your mind forever, especially mine. Once you finish playing ball you can talk to your kids: ‘I played against Peyton Manning.’

Hopefully we get some balls off him that we can bring home and keep as souvenirs.

"

Cooper Could Start

Right guard Paul Fanaika is a question mark for Sunday. If he cannot go, we would see Jonathan Cooper get his first start after 19 missed games due to injury and benching.

"

If Fanaika cannot play, Ted Larsen would move from left guard to right guard and Jonathan Cooper would start at left guard. #AZvsDEN

— Darren Urban (@Cardschatter) October 2, 2014"

More Connections to 2012 Season

Over the past week-plus, many pundits at national media outlets have compared this 3-0 Cardinals team to the one that started 4-0 in 2012 before losing 11 of its final 12 games. Not that we need more comparisons, but this stat kind of creeps me out.

If Arizona beats Denver on Sunday, it will be 4-0 on the season and 11-2 over its last 13 games. When the team beat the Miami Dolphins in overtime to move to 4-0 during that 2012 season, it also was 11-2 over its last 13 games.

I have nothing to add to that, I just thought it was weird and needed to be shared.

Birdgang Boo-Boo Brigade

USA TODAY Sports

Player	Position	Injury	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Game Day
Glenn Carson	ILB	Ankle	-	-	DNP	Out
Andre Ellington	RB	Foot	LP	LP	LP	Probable
Paul Fanaika	RG	Knee	LP	DNP	LP	Questionable
Rob Housler	TE	Hip	FP	FP	FP	Probable
Alex Okafor	OLB	Thigh	LP	FP	FP	Probable
Carson Palmer	QB	Shoulder	DNP	DNP	DNP	Out
Patrick Peterson	CB	Illness	-	-	DNP	Probable
Frostee Rucker	DT	Calf	LP	LP	LP	Probable
Dave Zastudil	P	Groin	LP	LP	LP	Probable

All injury statuses gathered from AZCardinals.com.

X-Factors and Matchups to Watch

Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

Jerraud Powers vs. Wes Welker

Don’t let his Week 1 interception of Philip Rivers fool you—Jerraud Powers has been abused this season. He has allowed more than twice as many yards after the catch (76) as Antonio Cromartie has allowed total yards (30), according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

Combined, Cromartie and Patrick Peterson have allowed 12 receptions on 25 targets (48 percent) for 101 yards (4.04 yards per target) with 20 yards after the catch (1.8 yards after the catch per reception). Powers has allowed 11 receptions on 20 targets (55 percent) for 157 yards (7.85 yards per target). He has allowed 6.9 yards after the catch per reception.

This is Wes Welker’s dream matchup.

Offensive Tackles vs. Edge Rush

The matchups are as follows: Jared Veldheer vs. DeMarcus Ware and Bobby Massie vs. Von Miller.

Ware and Miller could be the best pass-rushing teammates the Cardinals face all season, and Stanton holds the ball longer than Palmer does. On paper, that is a bad combination. But Veldheer and Massie together have allowed three quarterback pressures on 158 pass-blocking snaps over the past two games with Stanton behind center, again according to PFF.

This is definitely one to watch on Sunday.

Cardinals’ X-Factor of the Week: Andre Ellington

The Cardinals are 9-0 when running back Andre Ellington carries 10 or more times. Does that mean Ellington should be force-fed the ball as often as possible against the Broncos?

Well, yes, but within reason. Getting the second-year back 15 to 20 carries and another three to five opportunities in the passing game would dramatically increase the chances of Arizona pulling off the upset.

Through 18 games to start his career, Ellington is averaging 6.03 yards every time he touches the ball. Be it on a carry or a reception, he makes things happen. Feeding Ellington against the Broncos will keep Manning off the field, which helps the defense.

Prediction

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

Denver is 16-2 at home in the regular season with Manning leading the way. That’s not bad, right?

In all seriousness, it will take another team effort to emerge still undefeated after this game. That means the defense must limit what Manning and Co. do on offense by keeping everything in front of them. Getting burned deep is not an option on Sunday, so as long as everything is within 10 yards, Todd Bowles’ defense should be in good shape by the time this one wraps up.

Peterson echoed that notion in the Odegard piece:

"

Three-, five, seven-yard dink and dunks are not going to hurt us. We can live with that every day of the year if teams want to dink and dunk us all the way down the field, because at the end of the day, offenses are not that patient to take five or six yards every throw all the way down the field. It’s just not going to happen.

"

It can happen with Manning. He has loved the shorter routes that get his receivers in open space and allow them to run after the catch in recent years. With great athletes like Welker, Demaryius Thomas, Julius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders on the field—often all at the same time—it is important to wrap up and limit yards after the catch.

Offensively, Ellington must be the focal point. With Palmer out and Stanton in again and likely not completing a high percentage of his passes (he’s at only 51.6 percent completion this season), using as much clock by getting Ellington the ball is a must.

The more time the Cardinals eat up on offense, the less time Manning has to go to work on Bowles’ defense.

In the end, Manning will do just enough and Stanton will not be able to move the offense when it’s needed. Expect a big game from rookie John Brown, as Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Floyd continue to draw the bulk of the attention on the outside.

That will not be enough, however.

Prediction: Broncos 23, Cardinals 17 

All stats gathered from Pro-Football-Reference.com unless otherwise stated.