The Seattle Seahawks didn’t light up the scoreboard in their win over the Arizona Cardinals, but the offense had enough cohesiveness to come away with a 17-3 win. Given the injuries to Sam Darnold, Quenton Nelson, Charles Cross, and Rashid Shaheed, you take the wins any way you can get, even if it means not putting up a single play of over 20 yards.
According to Kenny Albert on the NFL on FOX broadcast, it was the first time the Seahawks won a game without a 20+ yard play on offense since 2000. Seattle’s
longest offensive play was only 18 yards from Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
It’s almost eerily on the 26-year anniversary of when the Seahawks prevailed 17-15 for the eventual 1-15 San Diego Chargers. Shaun Alexander finished with negative rushing yards and Darrell Jackson led Seattle with 27 yards receiving. The Chargers quarterback that day? Jim Harbaugh, a former Seahawks nemesis across AFC and NFC and who’s just coached the Chargers to an 0-8 start.
Of course, the one time Seahawks did have a 20+ yard play in the Cardinals game, the officials wiped out Zach Charbonnet’s 25-yard angry catch-and-run with a Jalen Sundell personal foul penalty. Referee Clete Blakeman said that the penalty occurred “at the end of the play” instead of “after the play,” which is all the distinction you need to determine why Seattle ended up with 3rd and 20 instead of a new set of downs and the penalty marked off afterward. Arizona’s offside penalty was correctly automatically disregarded due to Seattle’s personal foul.
Seattle might not have been explosive, but the offense had no turnovers and was 7/14 on third down, so there’s your trade-off for the day to get that W.
