Thursday Night Capsule – New Orleans Saints at Arizona Cardinals

THURSDAY NIGHT PREVIEW:

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS (2-4) AT ARIZONA CARDINALS (2-4)

Week 7 of the 2022 NFL season gets underway on Thursday, October 20 (8:15 PM ET, Prime Video) as the New Orleans Saints (2-4) visit the Arizona Cardinals (2-4). The all-time regular-season series between the two clubs is tied, 15-15, with the Saints having won the past two matchups. In their last meeting, Week 8 of the 2019 season, New Orleans earned a 31-9 win over Arizona as MICHAEL THOMAS and TAYSOM HILL each recorded touchdown receptions.

New Orleans quarterback ANDY DALTON aims for his fourth start in a row this season with a touchdown pass and has at least two touchdown passes in four of his five career starts against Arizona. Quarterback JAMEIS WINSTON has 10 touchdown passes in his past five road starts and has passed for 1,166 yards (291.5 per game) and seven touchdowns in four career starts on Thursday. Running back ALVIN KAMARA had six catches and 124 scrimmage yards (99 rushing, 25 receiving) last week and has 390 career receptions since entering the NFL in 2017, tied with CHRISTIAN MCCAFFREY for the third-most by a running back in his first six career seasons all-time.

Defensive end CAMERON JORDAN has four sacks in four career games against the Cardinals and has registered five sacks in his past five road games. Since 2012, he ranks second among all players with 109.5 sacks and fourth with 142 tackles for loss. Linebacker DEMARIO DAVIS led the team with nine tackles and had his fourth-career game with two sacks last week. He has four sacks in 2022 and needs 1.5 sacks to set a career high (five sacks in 2017 and 2018). Safety TYRANN MATHIEU was originally selected in the third round (No. 69 overall) by Arizona in the 2013 NFL Draft and recorded 303 tackles, 41 passes defensed, 28 tackles for loss and 11 interceptions in 66 games over five seasons (2013-17) with the club.

Arizona quarterback KYLER MURRAY totaled 322 yards (222 passing, 100 rushing) last week, his second-career game with at least 100 rushing yards. Murray has 2,019 career rushing yards since entering the NFL in 2019 and became the sixth quarterback all-time with at least 2,000 rushing yards in his first four seasons. Murray has two touchdown passes and a passer rating of 100-or-higher in two of his three career starts on Thursday. Tight end ZACH ERTZ led the team with seven receptions and 70 receiving yards in Week 6 and leads all NFC tight ends with 35 catches in 2022. He aims for his third in a row at home and sixth in a row overall this season with at least six receptions. Wide receiver MARQUISE BROWN has a touchdown reception in two of three home games this season and aims for his sixth in a row with at least five catches and 60 receiving yards. Wide receiver DEANDRE HOPKINS can make his season debut in Week 7. Since 2013, he leads the league in receptions (789) and ranks second in receiving yards (10,581) and fourth in touchdown receptions (68).

Defensive end J.J. WATT had two tackles for loss last week and leads all active players with 183 tackles for loss. He has three sacks in three career games against New Orleans. Linebacker ZAVEN COLLINS recorded the first two sacks of his career last week while linebacker MARKUS GOLDEN registered his first sack of the season in Week 6. Safety BUDDA BAKER had 14 tackles in the last meeting between the two clubs and aims for his sixth in a row on Thursday with at least five tackles.    

Prime Video will stream 15 Thursday Night Football games this season (Weeks 2-17, excluding Thanksgiving). The game will feature Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit and Kaylee Hartung on the call.

New Next Gen Stat powered by AWSCoverage Classification is a new, first-of-its-kind defensive stat which identifies eight different types of man and zone defensive coverages. Trained on over 60,000 NFL plays over the last four seasons, the stat uses AWS artificial intelligence systems to take fans inside the huddle to better understand defensive strategies.  The latest Next Gen Stat powered by AWS delivers new insights to help answer questions like which teams run the most Cover 2, who are the best man-cover corners in the league, how defenses game-plan against specific teams, which routes are most successful against specific coverage types, and how quarterbacks perform against similar coverage schemes.

For the Week 7 New Orleans-Arizona capsule, click here.