The Seahawks left Week 9 with a 17-3 win over the Arizona Cardinals and a few clear standouts from a game they controlled at Lumen Field.
Arizona got on the board first with a field goal from kicker Chad Ryland on the opening drive, but that was about as good as it got for the Cardinals. Seattle shut them down the rest of the way while the offense found its groove in the second quarter, when tight end AJ Barner scored both Seahawks touchdowns.
Barner was the biggest winner of the afternoon. He powered in a 1-yard touchdown run to put Seattle ahead, then later added a 7-yard touchdown catch. Those scores were his second and third of the season, and he’s steadily climbing the offensive pecking order.
Rookie running back Jadarian Price also made his presence felt in his second game back from injured reserve. He didn’t lead the team on the ground, but he was Seattle’s top receiver with four catches for 54 yards. For a rookie who didn’t offer much in the first half of the season, that kind of two-way contribution matters.
Drew Lock also gets a nod after improving to 2-0 as the team’s starting quarterback. His numbers weren’t flashy, but he protected the ball and stayed on his feet, which has been a major issue for Seattle this year. He may be asked to do it again next week, when the Seahawks face their former offensive coordinator, Klint Kubiak, and the Las Vegas Raiders.
Defensively, it was tough to single out just one player because the whole unit delivered. Seattle held Arizona to just that opening field goal for the second time this season.
Julian Love paced the group with eight tackles, while Byron Murphy, Demarcus Lawrence, and Dante Fowler Jr. each finished with a sack. After allowing 34 points on Monday Night Football against the Chicago Bears, the pressure the Seahawks brought all afternoon stood out.
If there was a loser, it was the officiating. The Seahawks were so dominant that nobody on their sideline really fit that label, so the referees got it for a string of questionable calls that drew attention throughout the game.
Among them were a pass interference call on Seattle and an unnecessary roughness penalty that led to Devon Witherspoon’s reaction. Those were just two of several odd rulings, but they didn’t stop the Seahawks from taking control.
Now Seattle turns to Week 10 against the Raiders with a chance to head into the bye with momentum.
In Other News...
Cardinals Offense Faces Immediate Heat After First Post-Brissett Letdown
The first game after the Jacoby Brissett trade brought a quick reality check for the Cardinals offense, which managed only a field goal in a 17-3 loss to Seattle. Gardner Minshew was steady enough in spots, completing 21 of 30 passes for 166 yards, but the unit never found a rhythm against a Seahawks defense that kept Arizona out of the end zone and put pressure on the pocket throughout the afternoon.
Afterward, head coach Mike LaFleur pointed to the offenses underperformance as the issue that stood out most, especially in a difficult road setting. For a Cardinals team trying to move forward without Brissett, the bigger concern is not just the score line but how quickly the group can settle in and avoid letting one flat outing turn into a longer stretch of missed chances. [Read more 🡒]
Josh Sweat Just Put Arizonas Trade Deadline Focus On One Decision
Josh Sweat has become one of the more interesting names attached to Arizonas trade deadline conversation, and not just because the Cardinals are still sorting out where they stand as the deadline approaches. After a recent game, Sweat brushed off the speculation and said he is focused on playing, even as the talk around him has only grown louder. For a team trying to balance present needs with long-term planning, that puts one of its more important edge players squarely in the middle of the discussion.
The reason the chatter has legs is that this is not just idle rumor season noise. Sweat is playing on a four-year deal with no guaranteed money left beyond the current season, which naturally makes him a name rival teams would monitor if Arizona becomes willing to listen. The Cardinals now have a decision to make about whether to keep him in the fold and push ahead, or treat the deadline as a chance to reshape the edge rush room while the market is still active. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Loss Exposed A Problem This Offense Keeps Making Worse
The Cardinals Week 9 loss to the Seahawks offered a familiar and frustrating snapshot of where this offense stands right now. With Gardner Minshew making the start at quarterback, Arizona ran into pass protection problems early and often, and the offense never found a steady rhythm to match a defense that did enough to keep the game within reach. The result was another setback in a season that has slipped to 3-6, with the kind of offensive issues that tend to compound when a team is already fighting uphill.
Arizonas defense held up well enough to give the offense chances, but penalties and breakdowns on the other side kept undercutting any momentum the Cardinals tried to build. For a team trying to stay afloat in the NFC, the concern is no longer just one bad afternoon, but a pattern of offensive mistakes that keeps showing up in the same spots and making every comeback attempt harder than the last. [Read more 🡒]