Takeaways: Cardinals Humbled by Seahawks

The Arizona Cardinals were brought back down to earth in Seattle.

Nov 24, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon stands on the sideline during the second quarter against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

The Arizona Cardinals returned from their bye week at 6-4 and riding a four-game winning streak into their road game against the Seahawks only to be crushed and embarrassed by their NFC West division foe. It wasn’t quite what fans wanted to see coming back off a break to say the least.

Now at 6-5, the Cardinals were served a slice of humble pie and stay on the road to face the Vikings next Sunday with a lot on their minds.

We’ve learned plenty about this Cardinals team though 12 weeks this season, but this game gave us some fresh perspectives. It was a bad loss for a team coming off a bye week after all, so there were some assessments to be made.

The offense can be figured out and squashed

The Cardinals’ offense has several stud players and a handful of Pro Bowl-caliber weapons that make the unit a more than respectable one. However, the group was stunted in Seattle by the Seahawks and the offense’s inefficacies were on full display.

James Conner was essentially sidelined by the defense with barely over 1.0 yards per carry and the run game entirely had just 35-yards subtracting the lone 14-yard run from Emari Demercado.

The offensive line was bullied up front for 60 minutes to eliminate the run game and dial up pressure on Kyler Murray, who was sacked five times and held in check all game. 

Not much went right offensively for the Cardinals thanks to Seattle’s game plan and future teams will no doubt aim to replicate what the Seahawks did to slow down Arizona.

Nick Rallis and Jonathan Gannon are good at their jobs

No one would consider the Seahawks’ offense to be a juggernaut, but like the Cardinals they have several Pro Bowl-level weapons and are an average to slightly above average offense. As hard as Seattle made it for Arizona’s offense, the same was mostly true vice versa.

The Seahawks did manage to find the endzone via Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but otherwise the Cardinals did a great job keeping a talented offense in check. Seattle ran the ball as bad as Arizona did with a pitiful 65-yards on 25 carries.

Much of the success the defense has seen this year must be attributed to the scheming of both Rallis and Gannon together. The defense has very few notable players that NFL fans outside of the desert can name, and yet they’re getting quality production from them. Guys like Dante Stills and Garrett Williams quickly emerged as studs alongside veterans like Budda Baker and Kyzir White.

It's been a very up-and-down season for this defense at times, but this was an overall good performance for the unit even in a loss.

Wins won’t come easy the rest of the season

We went into the bye week believing the Cardinals had a cakewalk schedule to close the year and that won’t be the case.

Arizona heads to Minnesota next Sunday to play the Vikings, who have been hot and cold but mostly good this year. The Cardinals also have three more NFC West games in a division full of chaos, although thankfully two are at home.

Along with those games includes a trip to the Panthers and hosting the Patriots.

It looked to be incredibly winnable at the bye week and there are still plenty of potential wins for the Cardinals here, but this game against the Seahawks showed us that Arizona still has their issues, and they’ll have to earn their wins rather than receive them.

Simply put, this team was humbled in Seattle. Hopefully that resonates the rest of the year to get them back on track.