Cardinals' 2015 schedule released

By foxsports
Published

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Quarterback Drew Stanton is probably thumbing over the Cardinals' newly released schedule right now. Not for opponents, mind you. Everyone knows those already. 

"Cold weather games," Stanton said. "I even did that when I was in Detroit, so it's not even that I'm soft since I'm here in Arizona. We've got four games that have potential to be cold. Those will be the first ones I'll take my finger to and see where we're at in December and November."

Whether he's playing because Carson Palmer isn’t ready to return from knee surgery, or standing on the sidelines holding a clipboard, Stanton will be happy to know the Cardinals only have one such game on the schedule: Dec. 20 at Philadelphia.

The Cardinals face the Bears in Chicago on Sept. 20 when it should still be relatively warm. They play in Detroit and Pittsburgh on Oct. 11 and Oct. 18 when football weather should still be in abundance, and they play at Cleveland on Nov. 1, which could be dicey, but probably won't reach arctic proportions.

The NFL released the full regular-season schedule on Tuesday complete with a multi-hour show dedicated to analyzing that schedule. We won't go that (too?) far, but here are some quick points.

The Cardinals open the season at home against the New Orleans Saints on Sept. 13.

Arizona plays three prime-time games for the second consecutive year, and two of them are again at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cards will host the Baltimore Ravens on ESPN's Monday Night Football (Oct. 26) and the Vikings on NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football (Dec. 10). They also play in Seattle on NBC's Sunday Night Football on Nov. 15.

The schedule includes seven games against teams that made the playoffs a year ago and four against 2014 division winners. Arizona will face five of the last seven Super Bowl Champions (Steelers, Saints, Packers, Ravens, Seahawks).

Two teams (Ravens and Bengals) will be making their first-ever regular season visits to University of Phoenix Stadium, leaving the Jaguars, Jets and Titans as the only NFL teams never to play at the venue that opened in 2006.

The Cardinals will play three of their first four games at University of Phoenix Stadium, as well as three of their final four. But that comes with a trade-off: Following their Oct. 4 game vs. St. Louis, they have only two home games over the next nine weeks (along with six road games and a bye).

The Cardinals play three of their four AFC games (against the AFC North) in succession from Oct. 18 to Nov. 1.

The Cardinals' bye week falls at the dead center of the season -- eight games before, eight games after.

The Minnesota Vikings visit University of Phoenix Stadium on Dec. 10. Which uniform will running back Adrian Peterson be wearing, if he's playing at all?

The closing three games against the Eagles, Packers and Seahawks could be the toughest stretch of the season; the second half of the season appears to offer a tougher slate than the first half.