Week 1 of the NFL season is one of the major points at which the league’s binary of success or failure — win or loss — is accentuated. After coming out flat in their opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Carolina Panthers are now 0-1 and searching for answers as to how to keep from going 0-2 and really being in trouble. The Arizona Cardinals, meanwhile, are enjoying a 1-0 record after a season-opening win over the New Orleans Saints and now seek to go 2-0 and serve notice that they’re ready to contend for the NFC West.
Coming back from the Superdome with a victory, the Cardinals will now try to take care of business against their second-straight NFC South opponent to open the season in their home opener at State Farm Stadium. Meanwhile, the Panthers will try to prove Week 1 isn’t a reflection of who they can be as a football team, and do so on the road yet again.
The Panthers and Cardinals have quite the history together, highlighted by their meeting in the NFC Championship Game 10 years ago that ended with Carolina throttling Arizona on their way to Super Bowl 50. That history continued late last year in Uptown Charlotte, when a 36-30 overtime thriller in Week 16 ended with Chuba Hubbard running 21 yards for a touchdown that won the Panthers the game and knocked the Cardinals out of the playoffs.
Where to watch Panthers vs. Cardinals live
When: Sunday, Sept. 14 | Time:Â 4:05 p.m. ET
Where:Â State Farm Stadium — Glendale, Az.
TV: CBS | Stream: Fubo (Try for free)Â
Panthers vs. Cardinals: Need to know
More of the same in Carolina?: Every time the Panthers finish a season strong and look as though they’ve finally turned a corner towards becoming a winning team again, they seem to reset at the beginning of the next season and look like the same woebegone franchise they’ve been since the end of the Cam Newton-Ron Rivera era. The problems the Panthers exhibited in Jacksonville were all familiar ones, as Bryce Young hardly resembled the quarterback that took major strides forward at the end of 2024 and the defense offered just as little resistance as they did in all of 2024, allowing the Jaguars to run for 200 yards on the dot. If they can’t snap out of it, Carolina will be looking at its third-straight season with an 0-2 start, which would quickly demoralize a young team and a success-starved fanbase.
What the Cardinals need to clean up:Â While Arizona was able to earn a 20-13 victory in Week 1, bad execution and missed opportunities in certain spots made the process of securing the win more difficult than it needed to be. Leading 20-10 late in the game, the Cardinals made it to the Saints’ 28-yard line and had a chance to ice the game then and there, but negative runs and a holding penalty triggered a sequence of events that led to New Orleans blocking a field goal. Then, after failing to run out the clock, the Cardinals allowed the Saints all the way to their 18-yard line, and had to rely on three straight incompletions — including a pass breakup by Budda Baker — to seal the win. While the Cardinals can at least carry a 1-0 record into their home opener, details and execution will certainly be harped upon as Arizona seeks to take its next steps as a team.
Panthers vs. Cardinals prediction, pick
The Cardinals are favored in this matchup by -6.5, and I’m not necessarily inclined to go against the oddsmakers after how flat the Panthers looked a week ago after a fairly banal and uninspiring preseason. For a team that’s starved for success, losing 26-10 in your opener is a mental blow that’s not as easy to overcome as it would be for even an average team like the Cardinals have come to be. Even if Arizona still has its own issues to clean up and a ways to go in order to challenge the very best teams in the NFC West, I feel like they should be able to take care of business, and they’ll certainly be extra motivated to do so given how the Panthers crushed their dreams of making the postseason a year ago. Pick: Cardinals -6.5
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