The Seattle Seahawks moved up a spot in the standings after a decisive week 11 victory against the Arizona Cardinals. It was only a few weeks prior where these very same Cardinals gave Seattle their first loss of the season in the first of two matchups between them. The Seahawks needed a bounce back victory, and they made it look easy.
The 28-21 score has been a recurring theme of both the Seahawks scoring less and the defense holding up their end of the field. Sure, the Cardinals didn’t turn the ball over, but the Seahawks did what they could. Kyler Murray went just 29/42 with 269 yards and two touchdowns. Kenyan Drake was their lead rusher with 29 yards.
Meanwhile, Russ was dangerously efficient. He threw an elite 23/28, even if he only accumulated 197 yards. They outran the Cardinals 165-57 behind Carlos Hyde’s 79 yards. Wilson once again spread the ball around, hitting eight different receivers. Tyler Lockett led with 67 yards.
Of course, all anyone is going to take from this game is the penalties. They were everywhere. Seattle was penalized eight times for 79 yards. Arizona was penalized 10 times for 115 yards. It was honestly remarkable, but it shouldn’t discount the very solid football played by Seattle. The most notable happened on a 41-yard completion to D.K. Metcalf which was called back by a faux holding call on Damien Lewis. A replay showed that Lewis didn’t hold anything but got bowled over by the Arizona pass rush. Was it humiliating? Absolutely. Was it offensive holding? Not slightly. Of course, the penalties go either way. Two consecutive penalties on the Cardinals led to a safety to put Seattle up 25-21 in the fourth. Murray had an intentional grounding call, followed by a holding call on former Seahawk J. R. Sweezy in the end zone for the safety.
Just because penalties were rampant doesn’t take away from the quality of football being played. The Seattle offense managed the game amazingly well by running when they needed to and being efficient in the short passing game. The defense played much better than they did in the first meeting. Carlos Dunlap had two sacks in the game, the latter being a game-winner. Jason Myers drilled a 41-yard field goal to put Seattle up by seven. The penalties might dissuade people to think better of the Seahawks, but I would argue that without the penalties, Seattle blows Arizona out.
