The Arizona Cardinals should travel well early in the season. Their defense will control this one. Lay it.

Kudos if you jumped on this line early. Matthew Stafford struggles mightily against good teams, and I think the Cardinals are legit contenders in the NFC. If that's true, this is a game they win by more than a field goal against a team that should suffer plenty of negative regression. The Cardinals have the pieces in the secondary to button up the Lions receivers, and I'm not a believer in the Lions' rushing attack. I'd rather have the money line at -125 here rather than -2 at -110.

I feel I'm getting the best of the deal here because the line is saying that these teams are equal, and this just isn't the case. Arizona got into an early funk last year with missed opportunities in its kicking game and never recovered. That issue should be fixed. Arizona had one of the higher ratings coming into last season after a 14-4 record in 2015. Last year?s defense was better than 2015 and so was RB David Johnson, who put himself in an elite class. Arizona bounces back strong here with a season-opening win.