Oh boy, have we a good Thursday Night Football on our hands or what. Week eight’s TNF takes us up to Glendale, Arizona for the meeting of the 7-0 Cardinals and 6-1 Packers. This is hands down the best game on paper of the 2021 season so far. The Packers are playing efficient, well-balanced football, while the Cardinals have been steamrolling opponents through a nice mix of passing and rushing offence. Unfortunately for us, bleedin COVID has struck down the Packers WR Corp, catching Davante Adams by surprise, as well as forcing Allen Lazard out as a close contact, due to him being unvaccinated. It was truly great when they announced Lazard was out of tonight’s game, about 30 minutes after I published my week eight waiver wire targets, where he was one of my top pickups…

Regardless of the Green Bay injuries, this game is shaping up to be a classic. ‘Why?’ you might ask? Because Aaron Rodgers is a baddddddddddd mannnnnn and has somehow played even better when Davante Adams has missed time. All is highlighted below in the statistics.

Packers:

• Current Record: 6-1 (3-1 away).
• Offence (Yards Per Game, ESPN): Overall – 337.9 (22nd) // Passing – 235.9 (18th) // Rushing – 102.0 (19th).
• Defence (Yards Allowed Per Game, ESPN): Overall – 331.4 (7th) // Passing – 210.0 (6th) // Rushing – 120.9 (22nd).
• Points Per Game Stats, ESPN: PPG Scored – 24.0 (16th) // PPG Allowed – 20.9 (7th).
• Injury Report (Out): David Bakhtiari, Jaire Alexander, Marquez Valdez Scantling, Davante Adams, Allen Lazard, Preston Smith.
• Without Davante Adams, in the Matt LeFleur era, Rodgers is 6-0, which is completely mindboggling. Without Adam, he has a completion % of 70.3, passing YPG of 310.8, 17-1 TD-INT and a passer rating of 125.1. (With Adams: 26-7, 65.9%, 246.8YPG, 72-11TD-INT, 104.9 passer rating).
• Packers’ defensive coordinator is also out with COVID.
• Aaron Jones is averaging 57.7 rushing yards per game. He has six TDs in 7 games.

Cardinals:

• Current Record: 7-0 (3-0 home)
• Offence (Yards Per Game, ESPN): Overall – 402.1 (7th) // Passing – 265.6 (11th) // Rushing – 136.6 (5th).
• Defence (Yards Allowed Per Game, ESPN): Overall – 315.7 (4th) // Passing – 201.0 (3rd) // Rushing – 115.7 (18th).
• Points Per Game Stats, ESPN: PPG Scored – 32.1 (4th) // PPG Allowed – 16.3 (1st).
• Injury Report (Out): JJ Watt, Rodney Hudson.
• DeAndre Hopkins is a little banged up with a hamstring injury.
• Murray’s passing yards is at +/- 272 in the bookies, which he has surpassed in only 3/7 games so far this year.

This may be a bit controversial but I’m getting on the Packers bus for tonight’s TNF match-up. The Cardinals soft under belly is their run defence, giving up 115.7 yards per game on average, which has them ranking 18th. This is where Green Bay can exploit them and with Adams and Lazard out with COVID complications, the Packers electing to go to the run is only going to be amplified. Aaron Jones is a complete stud, but has been overshadowed by Adams all season (except for his 3TD performance against the Lions), so tonight is his time to shine. I like the over for his rushing yards total at only 61.5 and I also like him to grab a touchdown at some point.

With all the talk of Kyler Murray’s brilliance this year, people forget how good the reigning MVP, Aaron Rodgers is. He is a cold-blooded killer moulded by the mountain of prime-time games he has won. I’ve seen some people predict a clean money-line win, but I’m not that brash so I’m going to give him and Green Bay a bit of a buffer of 10.5 points.

I considered the over points total at 50.5, but I feel from researching the statistics it could be a run heavy game, which in turn would speed up the clock. Both defences are sneaky good as well and Thursday night games can be funny. However, it’s entirely logical for the game to end up 35-31 or higher.

Sit back and enjoy two of the games’ greats dual it out on Thursday prime time.