Cardinals: party time!

Whether Kurt Warner was just holding onto that ball too long, whether he wasn't getting enough protection or whether guys weren't doing their thing downfield, you are going to struggle if your man in there can't get rid of the football. Arizona need to get that sorted this week.

Kevin Cadle
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THANKSGIVING DAY
Live on Sky Sports & in HD
Tennessee @ Detroit
5.30pm, Thurs, Sky Sports 2&HD2
Seattle @ Dallas
9.00pn, Thurs, Sky Sports 2&HD2
Arizona @ Philadelphia
1.30am, Fri, Sky Sports 2&HD2

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Thanksgiving Day means more NFL coming your way on Sky Sports. So before he tucks belatedly into his turkey and his pumpkin pie, we've got Kevin Cadle to call Thursday's triple header...

Tennessee @ Detroit

Do not expect to see the Tennessee Titans we saw against the New York Jets last week. Expect to see the Tennessee Titans that went 10-0 at the start of the season.

Jeff Fisher has said they are going to back to what made them successful for that 11-game streak going back to last year, which means you will see LenDale White and Chris Johnson running the football this time.

Who knows what makes a side move away from a winning formula? Maybe because it was in the previous two weeks that running game was taken away from them and they had to rely on Kerry Collins and the pass game.

Maybe that Jets game was a case of going to the well one too many times. Whatever the reason, it doesn't spell good news for the Detroit Lions. Mind you, nothing spells good news for the Detroit Lions right now.

It's not as if Collins is a poor quarterback as well. He is efficient and he is a better passer of the football than Trent Dilfer was when he led the Baltimore Ravens to the Superbowl, so I don't think that will be too big a problem when the Titans get into the post-season.

You don't have to be a tight, tight passer to win a championship and Collins might well be good enough. What the Titans need back on track is that running game and they need that defense back on track.

You can point to the running game but when you're down by 20 points it's time to start throwing the football and if you're 20 points down, your defense can't be playing its part.

Mind you, if there is one team you want to get your game back against it is Detroit. Anyone can run the ball against them!

A couple of weeks ago people were talking about Tennessee and the perfect season, well the Lions are close to the exact opposite - a completely imperfect season!

What makes it worse for them is they have been leading some games by pretty decent margins, so you can hardly see any signs of encouragement for them. And we are getting to the stage where we're talking about players getting sliced, losing their livings and that is not good.

Bill Parcells went into Miami and had to rip the playing staff apart and Detroit have already fired their general manager Matt Millen and head coach Rod Marinelli can't have much time left either.

Dante Culpepper hasn't done that badly since they pulled him back in, but hey, they could have pulled in Joe Montana and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference.

CADLE'S CALL: Do you really need me to tell you? There's only one turkey getting roasted on Thanksgiving Day here!

Seattle @ Dallas

At last we can look at the Dallas Cowboys and even mention Terrell Owens!

Last week TO had his first 100-yard game in 14, his second highest career day of 213 yards total and you've got to hand to him.

He spoke out, said give me the football, he talked the talk and against the 49ers, he showed he can still walk the walk.

I don't see him having such an extreme day but what we do know is Tony Romo will give him the ball and we can expect him to come up big against Seattle, because Seattle is just not a good football teams.

Looking ahead though, with TO back firing, Dallas looks to me like its ready for the next stage. Now teams are going to have to start worrying about him again and that is going to start opening up a lot of options for a lot of other people on that offense.

The bottom line for Dallas is they need to win 10 games, that's the minimum. That's three more wins and even then they still have to get in those play-offs and prove they can win one of those, which they haven't done in a long time.

They've still got some tough games coming up too, but this is a big game for them because it's where Romo can get some more games under his belt and get the confidence back up. He can keep going to TO and in particular Roy Williams and get that whole offense firing again.

If that happens, this Dallas team has some dynamite ready to explode, believe me.

The best thing I can say about Seattle is they are harder to beat that Detroit! But that's about it I'm afraid.

There's not as lot going on with their whole organisation right now. Head coach Mike Holmgren must be counting his days and even when you look for some positives, all you can really say is they've had to deal with injuries all year.

Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is a case in point, because he has been struggling, but every football team in America has to deal with the same problems, it's just that Seattle can't cope where others can.

CADLE'S CALL: I've got to go with the Cowboys. They are putting a nice little run together and they do have the package to get them into the play-offs. A game against Seattle is just what they need right now.

Arizona @ Philadelphia

It was bad move benching Donovan McNabb at half-time last week, a real bad move.

In coach Andy Reid's favour was the fact that although he turned the ball over four times in that quarter, that made it seven quarters Donovan came up with a bunch of turnovers.

Maybe it was time for a new focus, maybe it was time to see what Kevin Kolb could do, but what we saw is that Kevin Kolb couldn't do much at all, execept present Ed Reed with the longest touchdown return in NFL history.

Kolb was not ready to go against that Baltimore defense either, and McNabb will be back out there against Arizona - and we will see the same old Donovan. He's been around long enough to know what goes on and above all, he's a gamer. He likes to compete.

And you know what? Don't put it all on Donovan either! It's too easy to blame the quarterback but anyone from Philadelphia will tell you their defense hasn't been playing well and I am telling you that Andy Reid's play calling has stunk!

Both their receivers have been injured, Brian Westbrook has been out with a knee injury and he's their only real playmaker, which doesn't make it any easier. I think on the last 35 third downs they have thrown the ball 34 times - they can't keep putting it all on Donovan!

That's why there season is dead. All those reasons right there. If they are even thinking about the play-offs, they have to go the rest of the season unbeaten, and I don't even see that happening here!

Mind you, Arizona is not that good on the road as we saw against the New York Giants last week. They are OK at home, but away from home are just not the same football team.

That might be the big thing for them come the play-offs. Last week the Giants got to Kurt Warner at quarterback and that is one thing this Philly defense likes to do too.

Whether Kurt was just holding onto that ball too long, whether he wasn't getting enough protection or whether guys weren't doing their thing downfield, you are going to struggle if your man in there can't get rid of the football. They need to get that sorted this week.

He does have Tim Hightower running well to help him out and Anquan Bolden does it week in week out, but Warner is going to have to raise his game when it really matters - and soon!

CADLE'S CALL: I like the Cardinals here. They haven't won for seven Thanksgiving games in a row, but we've been doing it for 10 years on Sky Sports and this will be the first one we've seen. I think we might just be looking in on an NFC West title party!