Arizona (4-1 SU and ATS) bounced back from a tough home loss to St. Louis in Week 4 with a 42-17 blowout in Detroit last week, giving the team 90 points in its two road victories in 2015. Pittsburgh (3-2 SU, 3-0-2 ATS) is also coming off an identical home loss/road win pattern with a 23-20 defeat to Baltimore before edging San Diego 24-20 last Monday night on a Le'Veon Bell touchdown on the final play. These teams meet just once every four years with the Steelers winning 32-20 on the road in the most recent matchup in 2011, but these teams also met in a Super Bowl XLIII thriller in 2009 when Pittsburgh scored a late touchdown to win 27-23. There are plenty of reasons to wager on either team on Sunday, as Arizona is 10-2 ATS versus poor defenses (350+ YPG allowed) over the past three seasons and 14-2 ATS after a game goes Over the total since head coach Bruce Arians has taken over. The Steelers are 18-7 ATS after the first month of the season since 2013, and underdogs of 3.5 to 10 points with a 60% to 75% win pct. after a 2-1 ATS stretch are 40-15 ATS in the past 10 seasons versus winning teams. While the Cardinals expect to have two key players in the lineup in S Tyrann Mathieu (heel) and WR John Brown (hamstring), they will not have the services of S Chris Clemons (IR, hamstring) or LBs Alex Okafor (calf) and Kenny Demens (knee). LB LaMarr Woodley (chest) is questionable to face his former teammates on Sunday. Pittsburgh has five questionable players of concern, and all are on defense -- DT Daniel McCullers (knee), LB Ryan Shazier (shoulder), LB Jarvis Jones (hip), CB Cortez Allen (knee) and LB Jarvis Jones (hip).
Which team will win its second straight game on Sunday afternoon? For the answer, connect to NFL Best Bets for all the StatFox Experts picks throughout the 2015 regular season and playoffs. This season, the experts have a collective 55% ATS record (40-33-1) in NFL Best Bets, led by StatFox Dave's huge 65% ATS mark (13-7). StatFox Gary has a 56% ATS record (10-8) in NFL Best Bets and 55% ATS (6-5) in Totals, while StatFox Scott is sizzling in NFL Totals this season at 71% (12-5).
Arizona's offense has exceeded expectations with 38.0 PPG on 393 total YPG this season. The team has great balance with an average of 30 pass attempts (258 YPG, 8.5 YPA) and 27 rush attempts (135 YPG, 5.0 YPC). Veteran QB Carson Palmer has thrown for a hefty 263 YPG on 8.9 YPA with 13 TD and only 3 INT. He has faced the Steelers 14 times in his career, mostly with Cincinnati, and has not fared well with a 5-9 record (SU and ATS), but has averaged 191 passing YPG with 20 TD and 12 INT. He has relied most heavily on veteran WR Larry Fitzgerald (35 rec, 490 yds, 6 TD) and will continue to do so with No. 2 WR John Brown (23 rec, 301 yds, 2 TD) slowed by a bad hamstring. Another surprising veteran offensive player has been RB Chris Johnson (405 rush yds, 5.1 YPC, 2 TD) who has run for 296 yards on 6.0 YPC in the past three weeks. This is quite an improvement from last season when he gained only 663 yards on 4.3 YPC and 1 TD with the Jets. It has also helped to get speedy RB Andre Ellington back healthy from a knee injury, as he has run for 132 yards on just 15 carries (8.8 YPC) and 2 TD in two games. On defense, Arizona has done a nice job in limiting opponents to 18.0 PPG and 333 total YPG. The defense is holding teams under 100 rushing YPG (97 YPG on 4.0 YPC) but has given up more yards through the air than it had hoped for (235 passing YPG on 6.1 YPC). The Cardinals have also shown great on-ball skills with 13 turnovers this season, tied for second-most in the NFL. However, the Steelers are tied for the second-fewest giveaways in the league with three, and are the only NFL team that hasn't lost a fumble yet.
Pittsburgh's offense has missed key players to both injury (QB Ben Roethlisberger, C Maurkice Pouncey) and suspension (RB Le'Veon Bell, WR Martavis Bryant), but has still managed a respectable 24.0 PPG and 358 total YPG. The team has been able to move the football in both facets with 237 passing YPG (8.1 YPA) and 120 rushing YPG (4.6 YPC). Veteran QB Mike Vick has been an adequate fill-in for Roethlisberger with a 64% completion rate for 365 yards (6.3 YPA), 2 TD and 1 INT. But Vick has been horrible versus Arizona in his career, completing just 49.6% of his passes for 153 YPG, 0 TD and 4 INT. To improve these numbers, he'll have to throw more balls in the direction of superstar WR Antonio Brown. Although the wideout has 37 catches for 523 yards and 2 TD, he still wants more than the 10.2 targets he's seen per game, which is below the 11.4 targets per game he had last season. Third-year RB Le'Veon Bell has been outstanding in his three games with 409 total yards (136 YPG), 4.9 YPC and one rushing touchdown in each contest including the game-winner on the final play last Monday. The Pittsburgh defense has allowed too many total yards (358 YPG), but has also been on the field for nearly 33 minutes per game (32:48). Opponents are completing 70% of their throws for a hefty 257 YPG (6.8 YPA), but the run-stop unit has limited teams to a pedestrian 101 YPG on 3.9 YPC. The Steelers had just two forced turnovers in their first three games of 2015, but have done a better job in forcing mistakes recently with two takeaways in each of the past two contests.
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