The Seattle Seahawks did what they had to do to get the W against the Arizona Cardinals. Fireworks were not needed on offense, while the undermanned defense held down the Cardinals offense after the opening drive. The dominance over Arizona continues, but there a far more big picture things to focus on beyond winning 11 in a row over arguably the most hapless franchise in the NFL.
It’s time for Winners and Losers from Seahawks 17, Cardinals 3!
Winners
An undermanned defense steps up to the task
Biggest winner
for me was the defense, which took a kick in the teeth after giving up some big plays last week against the Chicago Bears. I know the Cardinals offense is bad when they’re not playing the Dallas Cowboys defense, but the Seahawks gave up an 89-yard drive to start the game and didn’t even let the Cards finish with 200 total yards. Sub-4 yards-per-play is excellent, and it’s not their fault that two perfectly fine turnovers were ruled out because of substandard officiating.
Dante Fowler stepped up and got his first sack as a Seahawk, Byron Murphy II and DeMarcus Lawrence also got to Gardner Minshew, Derick Hall had three TFLs, Devon Witherspoon was a menace at the line of scrimmage, and Nick Emmanwori had a strong bounce-back performance after struggling versus Chicago. Above all else, this defense finally got some red zone stops, and perhaps it’s fitting that they got the red zone issues “fixed” for a day on both sides of the ball.
A.J Barner gets more involved
It’s not like Barner was the focal point of the Seahawks passing offense, but he caught his first touchdown of the season and turned three Barnyard sneaks into first downs and/or a touchdown. It’s the second multi-TD game of Barner’s career, and all of his touchdowns this season have come against Arizona.
The fact that Seattle had Barnyard opportunities in itself was a relief and a sight for sore eyes.
Drew Lock plays through pain, doesn’t turn it over
It was a bit of a nervy start from Drew, but Lock gutted through the elbow and (later) oblique injuries to play mistake-free football. He wasn’t flashy and didn’t need to be, going 19/28 for 175 yards and a touchdown. Lock also scrambled for a first down and the only time there was a close shave on an interception was the screen pass that somehow got deflected to Cooper Kupp for eight yards. Also of note? No sacks.
This was, in a non-patronizing way, a high-end backup quarterback performance. Lock didn’t do anything to put Seattle in jeopardy of losing the game, and made enough winning plays to get Seattle across the finish line. Now we wait to see if he plays in Week 10.
Zach Charbonnet gets closer to his old self
Seattle’s run game wasn’t anything spectacular, but when it was time for the hammer to hit the nail, Charbonnet was called upon. He finished with 77 yards on 16 carries, including a spectacular 17-yard run to help bleed the clock. His 25-yard catch-and-run was wiped out due to a really iffy Jalen Sundell personal foul, otherwise he’d be north of 100 scrimmage yards. Having Charbonnet get into gear should help the offense across the run, pass, and pass pro.
Jadarian Price makes noise as a receiver
I can’t really vouch for Price having an effective game as a runner (9 carries for 24 yards), but he had a solid kick return to start the game, and led the Seahawks with 54 yards receiving on four catches. Yes, Jaxon Smith-Njigba had just 51 yards on seven catches, which gave us the rare sight of a non-JSN receiver leading the team in yards. Price wasn’t known as a receiving back in college, so this development was highly encouraging.
Offensive line holds up after some nervy initial moments
Lock was only hit three times and not sacked once. They got some movement in the run game albeit not consistently. Most of the pressures allowed were seemingly on blitzes and not four-man rushes. Some of the success I imagine is level of competition, but having your Week 1 starting OL + Josh Jones made for a calmer operation compared to the mess that was Monday night.
Losers
Clete Blakeman’s crew was a joke
The Reggie Virgil catch not getting overturned for being out of bounds was astonishing, but that’s on the replay center since they make the call. For what it’s worth, I don’t think Barner’s touchdown was a catch but that’s one that might have been too closer to over turn.
However…
Deciding that Trey McBride’s forward progress was stopped on his fumble was amazingly bad officiating and indefensible. The Josh Jobe DPI was ludicrous and made it seemed like McBride was a lightweight when he just fell down from marginal contact. Two turnovers taken off the board because of those calls. I actually don’t have too much of an issue with the Devon Witherspoon taunting penalty, but having rewatched the Jalen Sundell unnecessary roughness I think that is a weak call. If it’s not after the whistle then I don’t think it was unnecessary roughness given Budda Baker was in the vicinity of where Charbonnet was tackled.
It was a flag-fest; yet another one involving the Seahawks. There were a lot of deserved flags on both teams, but this trend of the NFL over-officiating games has to stop.
Everyone knows A.J. Barner’s touchdown celebration except Jonathan Vilma
Vilma was a great linebacker in the NFL and a Super Bowl champion. As an analyst? Yeah…
It was not an enjoyable broadcast to listen to, I’ll put it that way.
Avery Smith is a liability on special teams
This is not a major thing when we’re talking about special teams role players, but the rookie corner doesn’t get on the field on defense (nor should he), so he has to show his value on ST. He’s been culpable on a couple of big kick returns this season due to missed tackles and bad angles. Today was the second time he backed the Seahawks up due to a penalty. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some healthy scratches for him moving forward once the Seahawks are healthier.
Final Notes
- What is Emanuel Wilson’s future on the Seahawks? The trade deadline is Tuesday. I can’t pretend Wilson has much trade value, but he’s been completely frozen out of the offense for two straight games. This week I am pretty sure he wasn’t even part of special teams, which at least he was last week. Obviously the injury concerns regarding Charbonnet and Price are enough to not leave yourself thin at running back, but it’s a bit unfortunate that Wilson has gone from a 100-yard game against the Kansas City Chiefs and a couple of other solid performances this season to an unofficial healthy scratch.
- George Holani stays on special teams, but doesn’t get any offensive reps. I’d say it’s about time that happened. If you can trust Zach in pass pro, Holani still provides something as a special teams guy.
- Cooper Kupp and Tory Horton get a little bit involved in the offense. A combined five catches for 59 yards for the other top receivers on the team. They each had successful third down conversions, which is a delight knowing how heavily Seattle relies on JSN.
- JSN goes full Golden Tate. Please don’t run backwards out of a first down again, JSN.
- No strong opinion on Brian Fleury’s play-calling. When you’re down two starting offensive linemen, your starting QB, a starting receiver, and your backup QB is hurt, there’s only so much you can do to make the offense functional. The execution generally looked better but this is a tough data point when assessing his future as OC. It was at least a relief to see Seattle stick with Price and Charbonnet and run more play-action again.
- Beat the fading Raiders and you can get some much-needed rest. Klint Kubiak has the Raiders at least looking more competitive than they have been in the past couple of years, but the Raiders can’t run the ball and their defense is arguably the worst in the NFL. Regardless of who the starting QB is, this game still favors the Seahawks and frankly I bet the crowd favors the Seahawks in Vegas next Sunday. If you get to 6-4 entering the bye, there’s reason to believe in a late-season turnaround. There will be healthy bodies coming back, and the back-end of the schedule is not as daunting as it initially looked. No doubt the Rams and 49ers games will be tough, but the non-divisional opponents? Only the Giants (somehow, someway) could be a potentially scary one.
