NFL Week 7 Picks: Pittsburgh Steelers Will Take Care of Business vs. Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals' bye week probably couldn't have come at a better time. The Cardinals went into their week off on a four-game losing streak, the last of which was a blowout at the hands of the lowly Minnesota Vikings.

To boot, it couldn't hurt to have an extra week to prepare for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who will pay the Cardinals a visit on Sunday afternoon.

Extra week of rest or no extra week of rest, the oddsmakers don't have a whole lot of faith in the Cardinals. The folks at Bodog have the Steelers as four-point favorites.

In recent years, picking the Steelers to win and cover a spread like this would have been a no-brainer. This year, you just can't know for sure. Two of Pittsburgh's wins came in blowout fashion, but the other two came in very close games against lousy teams.

As such, you almost have to fear for the Steelers against the 1-4 Cardinals.

Emphasis on "almost."

There's no denying the Steelers have issues this year. At the same time, there's no denying the Cardinals have even more issues. It just so happens that a couple of those play into Pittsburgh's strengths.

Chief among these is the Steelers' ability to defend the pass. In fact, the Steelers defense ranks No. 1 in the NFL against the pass, holding quarterbacks to an average of 157.7 passing yards per game.

This is bad news for Arizona quarterback Kevin Kolb. He got off to a decent enough start but was trending downwards headed into Arizona's Week 6 bye. That wouldn't necessarily be a cause for alarm, but this is Kolb we're talking about, not Aaron Rodgers. What we're seeing from him might be what we're going to get from him on a consistent basis.

Beanie Wells can go a long way towards taking some pressure off Kolb, but it's questionable how much work he's going to get. Arizona's defense has not played well this season, and that's something Ben Roethlisberger, Rashard Mendenhall and Mike Wallace can take advantage of. They could very well put the Cardinals in an early hole, forcing them to abandon the run. They did the same thing to Chris Johnson and the Tennessee Titans in Week 5.

My gut feeling is we're probably going to see something more along the lines of a see-saw battle in the first half. The game will be decided in the second half, at which point I think the Cardinals will crumble and the Steelers will pull away.

When that moment comes, the Steelers will be home free.

Steelers 34, Cardinals 24