Hold an NFL team to 17 points with no plays of 20 or more yards, and the odds are there’s a good chance of winning. The same goes for limiting one of the best wide receivers in the league (Jaxson Smith-Njigba) to seven catches for 51 yards.
That was not the case on Sunday when the Arizona Cardinals did all those things in a 17-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks and lost because the offense could muster only three points that came on their first possession of the game.
Between that drive (10 plays, 74 yards) and the final one (14 plays, 63 yards), the Cardinals ran 28 plays for 68 yards in seven possessions with five first downs. They had eight in the other two.
In all of last season’s 20 games, the Seahawks had only two and both were against the 49ers
when they scored 17 or fewer. This was their fourth this season with the others 17 against the Bears (loss), 14 vs. the Broncos (loss) and 13 vs. the Patriots (win).
There were issues by the Cardinals to be sure, but not much more can be asked of the defense.
The penalties
There were two pass interference calls on cornerbacks Max Melton (29 yards) and Denzel Burke (20), with both on third down. Those 49 yards accounted for virtually half of the team’s 97 total penalty yards.
Then, there were three offside penalties flagged and one encroachment, with the three for offside on third down.
Darius Robinson's penalty reduced a third-and-12 to third-and-7 and, for the second consecutive week, drew the wrath of linebacker Josh Sweat. Against Dallas, Sweat got into it with defensive lineman L.J. Collier after an unnecessary roughness penalty.
Head coach Mike LaFleur tried to deflect it, saying, “It's an emotional game. Those guys all got each other's backs. Me and my brother yell at each other too, sometimes. They're brothers, and they're fine. We know if there's an issue. There's no issue with any of those guys.”
One issue, however, is that Sweat has been the subject of trade speculation beginning in the offseason. In addition, four plays after Robinson’s infraction, Sweat also jumped offside (on third-and-5), but fortunately it was canceled rather being offset by an unnecessary roughness penalty on Seahawks center Jalen Sundell that pushed Seattle back 15 yards and led to a punt. Without that penalty, the Seahawks would have had a first down at the Cardinals 42-yard line.
Sweat said, “I’ve got to keep my cool. That is not justified whatsoever by me. I regret doing it, and there’s no excuse for it. I know how to do it. I’ve been doing it for a long time. I’ve got to be better with that.”
Concluded safety Budda Baker, “It definitely eats you up. Especially when you are in a third-and-long situation and you jump and put them in third-and-short. That kind of extends their playbook a little. They can run, they can pass, they can do a lot of different things. We’ve just got to be better and execute and do our job.”
The others were offside on linebacker Baron Browning that was declined because of Burke’s interference and a 3-yard encroachment by nose tackle Andrew Billings at the Cardinals 5-yard line. On the next two plays, tight end A.J. Barner ran for one yard with the latter one for a touchdown and 7-3 Seattle lead.
Stopping JSN
Smith-Njigba entered the game leading the NFL with 985 receiving yards and had reached 100 or more in seven of the Seahawks eight games. Except for one touchdown drive, the Cardinals kept him in check throughout the game.
During Seattle’s final possession of the first half, on second-and-10 from their own 33-yard line with 37 seconds remaining, quarterback Drew Lock connected with JSN for 13 yards and the next two plays were the Melton interference penalty on a pass to JSN, followed by an 18-yard completion at the 7-yard line to JSN.
Aside from those two completions, his other five catches totaled 20 yards.
The real damage was by running backs Jadarian Price (4-54) and Zach Charbnonnet (1-9). Those 63 yards accounted for 36 percent of Lock’s 175 passing yards.
Solid against the run
Charbonnet (16-77, 4.8) and Price (9-24, 2.7) combined for 101 yards rushing, but a chunk of Charbonnet’s yards came on Seattle’s final possession that ran out the clock.
He had four consecutive carries for 33 yards, so up to that point, he was 12-44 (3.7-yard average).
More penalties on special teams
In the second quarter, an illegal block above the waist by tight end Elijah Higgins negated most of a 30-yard kickoff return by Devin Duvernay to the 33-yard line with the Cardinals beginning the possession at the 17.
On the next Seattle possession, safety Kitan Crawford was penalized for holding, which pushed an out-of-bounds punt by Seahawks punter Mchael Dickson back to the 27-yard line.
Cardinals punter Blake Gillikin got off to a shaky start with a punt of 41 yards, but then seemed to finally get back in rhythm with punts of 55 (no return yardage because of a Seattle holding penalty), 34 from the Seattle 43 to the 9-yard line (fair catch), 54 (return of two yards), 50 (fair catch) and 35 from the Seattle 47 to the 12 (fair catch).
His numbers for the day on six punts were a 44.8-yard average and 44.5 net.
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Seahawks 17, Cardinals 3: Observations from defense and special teams
