Pair of also-rans meet up in desert, Saints vs. Cardinals

NEW ORLEANS (5-8) at ARIZONA (5-7-1)

Sunday, Dec. 18, 4:05 p.m., ET

OPENING LINE - Cardinals by 3 +

RECORD VS SPREAD - New Orleans 8-5, Arizona 4-9

SERIES RECORD - Cardinals lead 15-14

LAST MEETING - Cardinals beat Saints 31-19, Sept. 13, 2015

AP PRO32 RANKING - Saints No. 24, Cardinals No. 22

SAINTS OFFENSE - OVERALL (1), RUSH (18), PASS (1)

SAINTS DEFENSE - OVERALL (24), RUSH (12), PASS (29)

CARDINALS OFFENSE - OVERALL (10), RUSH (11), PASS (13)

CARDINALS DEFENSE - OVERALL (1), RUSH (10), PASS (2)

STREAKS, STATS AND NOTES - Saints have lost three straight at Arizona. ... New Orleans ranked No. 1 in offense, Cardinals No. 1 in defense. ... New Orleans routed Arizona 45-14 in divisional playoffs of 2009 season, Kurt Warner's final game. ... New Orleans and Jacksonville are only teams not to have winning record at any point the last three seasons. .. Saints QB Drew Brees has not thrown TD pass in last two games and was intercepted three times against Tampa Bay. ... Brees topped 4,000 yards passing for record 11th straight season. ... New Orleans needs to win two of three to finish 7-9 for third straight year. ... Arizona RB David Johnson joins Edgerrin James as only players to have at least 100 yards from scrimmage in first 13 games of single season. No one has done it for first 14. Record for most consecutive 100-yard games in season is 15 by Barry Sanders (1997, year he was co-MVP with Brett Favre). ... Johnson leads league in yards from scrimmage (1,830), needs 255 yards receiving to top 1,000 yards rushing and receiving. ... WR Larry Fitzgerald has caught pass in 192 consecutive games, third-longest streak in NFL history. He is second in NFL with 91 receptions. ... Against Miami, Chandler Catanzaro missed 41-yard FG and extra point and had another extra point blocked and returned by Dolphins to Arizona end zone for two points. ... Cardinals QB Carson Palmer has 20 TD passes and 13 interceptions. He threw two TDs with two interceptions vs. Miami. ... Arizona loss would give Bruce Arians his first losing season in his four years in desert. ... Fantasy Tip: Arizona WR J.J. Nelson ran for one TD and caught pass for another against Dolphins. He has five TDs in past six weeks. With release of Michael Floyd, expect Nelson to get even more work this week.

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