NFL Week 4 Picks: Matchups Guide, Advice and Early Score Predictions

The NFL season is still relatively young, but there are already a handful of important games with playoff implications on the Week 4 docket.

The 2016 campaign will be a quarter of the way over for most of the teams in the league when the New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings wrap up their Monday night showdown on Oct. 3, so it is not too early to start looking at critical head-to-head matchups when projecting toward the postseason.

With that in mind, here is a look at a full matchup slate and score predictions for every Week 4 game before delving into some advice for a couple of contests in particular that will shape playoff races moving forward.

Los Angeles Rams at Arizona Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals reached the NFC Championship Game last season, where they lost to the Carolina Panthers. They returned many of the same key pieces, including quarterback Carson Palmer, running back David Johnson and wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and John Brown.

As for the Los Angeles Rams, they looked completely helpless and overmatched in their season opener against the San Francisco 49ers and lost 28-0. Even in their first win of the season in Week 2, the Rams failed to score a touchdown and needed a strong defensive performance to beat the Seattle Seahawks 9-3.

However, it is the 1-2 Cardinals looking up at the Rams in the NFC West standings following Los Angeles’ 37-32 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 3. The 32 points allowed are likely concerning for Rams fans, but they still got a fumble return for a touchdown from Ethan Westbrooks and an interception from Mark Barron.

The real issue for Los Angeles is quarterback play, and that will prove costly against the Cardinals.

According to Mike Sando of ESPN.com, Case Keenum was 31st among all qualifying quarterbacks in Total …

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