2024 Week 12: Cardinals 6, Seahawks 16
This was an interesting game, to say the least. There were a lot of punts, low yards per play, and the only difference maker was a pick-6 by Seattle, securing them a win. This was definitely not the best game of the week. 11 drives ended in punts, and 9 of the first 11 drives ended with a punt.
With this win, Seattle (6-5) takes the lead in the NFC West with two more division games remaining, @ ARI in two weeks, and a Week 18 game against the Rams that could be the deciding factor between which team makes the playoffs/wins the division, and which team is out. The entire division is (6-5) or (5-6). There’s a route to 10 or even 11 wins for Seattle, but they’re not a good team so they’ll likely get to 8 or maybe 9
Arizona (6-5) loses the division lead with this loss and will need to beat Seattle at home in 2 weeks, if not they likely won’t make the playoffs. The Cardinals will likely get to 9 or 10 wins which gives them a great shot to win the the division. If they drop the second game with Seattle they would need to win out from there to have a chance at winning the division.
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QB Report:
- I’m calling it now, this is Geno Smith’s (22/31 for 254, 1TD/1 INT) last year as a starter. He came out of the gates firing and was well on pace for a 5k-yard season, low touchdown totals but when you throw that much that successfully they come with time (like Stafford the last two seasons). Week 5 when DKM got hurt Geno completely lost his deep ball and just started to throw everything underneath. This trend has helped spark Jaxon Smith-Njigba (6-77-1/7) but with DK back he hasn’t gone back to throwing downfield.
- Kyler Murray (24/37 for 285 yards, 1 INT; 2 rushes for 9 yards) played a pretty bad game, he should have had at least one more INT, and I can recall maybe 3 or 4 pass attempts where he actually stepped into it and put some zip on the ball, everything was just a bunch of floaters… almost shovel pass-like. The pick-6 was one of those slow floaters that he threw too far and he got punished for it… he could have just fired the ball in there but opted not to.
RB Report:
- James Conner (7-8-0; 5 catches for 41 yards) was swallowed up by the Seattle defense, so Arizona got Trey Benson (4-18-0) some more work. I don’t think anything is wrong with Conner per se, Seattle’s defensive line was getting upfield quickly all game. Benson once again looked better than Conner and led the team in rushing.
- The Seahawks run game wasn’t much better, getting swallowed up by the Cardinals continuously improving defense. Seattle outran by about 17 yards 65 to 49, but had a putrid 2.5 yards per attempt.
WR Report:
- The same story different game for Marvin Harrison Jr. (3-47-0/6), he still can’t get open. People are starting to turn on him in the X/Twittersphere… it seems more like rage-bait right now, but that’s how these things start.
- Trey McBride (12-133-0/15) had a huge game, mostly check downs or throws close to the line… it was the only kind of offensive either team could get to work. McBride is averaging 14 FF-ppg and has 0 receiving touchdowns, it’s an extremely impressive but frustrating run this season.
- I talk about Michael Wilson (2-54-0/4) a lot, often saying he’s the best WR on the team. This game really helped move that needle away from Dortch/Marv/McBride. Wilson was getting open consistently on Riq Woolen (4 tackles, 1 PD), one of the premiere corners in the game. Murray made a beautiful pass to Wilson after beating Woolen off the line of scrimmage, dropping it in over his shoulder and got the ball there just in time for Wilson to get down and not get his bell rung by the safety coming over.
image source: (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)