2024 Week 14: Seahawks 30, Cardinals 18
Arizona started the game with an opening drive TD and I was thinking/hoping Arizona would win to really keep the NFC West race close, but Seattle answered with 17 straight unanswered points and the score after one-quarter of play was 17-7. Seattle was in control the entire game and never lost it.
The Seahawks (8-5) have a 1-game lead in the NFC West with 4 games to go. Seattle’s defense has been great since the BYE week, leading this team to a 4 game-win streak. If Seattle can somehow pull out a win against the Packers this week they will likely win the NFC West. If they lose then I think the Rams will swoop in and steal the division from them.
Arizona (6-7) has cooled off after their win streak and is now on 3 game losing streak. I nearly crowned them as the NFC West champions a few weeks ago as their defense started to come together, but they lost all semblance of that, and their offense is tied to Kyler/MHJ so they won’t be serious contenders for years to come.
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QB Report:
- Geno Smith (24/30 for 233 yards, 1 TD) has lost all of his spunk that he started the year with. He’s had just one game above 20 points in his last 8 starts. If you want 12 points from a QB, Geno Smith is your guy.
- Kyler Murray (25/38 for 259 yards, 2 TDs/2 INT; 3 rushes for 16 yards) has seemingly given up on playing quarterback, he either stays in the pocket and throws to McBride (7-70-0/14), or gets forced on the run and chucks it up to Marvin Harrison. In fantasy, if Kyler isn’t running in a touchdown he’s useless.
RB Report:
- There are a few teams in the league that don’t realize the kind of talent they have at the RB position. The Giants cut their best RB before the season, and now push their worst RB (Singletary) over Tracy. Tampa has 3 great runningbacks but the only one they care about is Bucky Irving, and Seattle pushes Kenneth Walker (DNP) over Zach Charbonnet (22-134-2; 7 catches for 59 yards).
- The best thing that has happened to the Seattle offense since drafting Charbonnet is Walker getting injured so Charb can play. Over the last two seasons every time Charbonnet gets playing time, he outplays Walker, so they don’t use him to save face. Can’t look dumb by pushing bad players so they suppress the good ones instead of owning up to it.
WR Report:
- DK Metcalf’s (4-49-0/6) fantasy stock has plummeted since he was injured. Geno Smith lost all of the confidence he had to start the year when DKM went down and never regained it. On top of that the playcalling on offense has been idiotic and DK is back to the decoy/downfield role that he’s been in the majority of his career. If you want to talk about a waste of talent, DK is a prime example.
- While the Seahawks have stopped going to DK, it has brought on an uprising in Jaxon Smith-Njigba (5-82-1/5) as the slot receiver. DK going deep opens up everything underneath, be it JSN or the running backs.
- Marvin Harrison Jr. (4-49-0/8) is a boring WR to watch.
- Michael Wilson (2-57-1/3) is a fun receiver to watch, who is really quite good. The issue he has is Arizona and Kyler have no intention of throwing the ball in his direction ever. Wilson had both of his catches and a 41-yard TD on the first drive of the game and then saw his only other target in the second half.
image source: (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)