The Seahawks Dark Side Defense Has Destroyed The Cardinals Yet Again

It’s not very often you see one team’s defense play this dominantly twice in one season, but the Seattle Seahawks have against the Arizona Cardinals.

Arizona Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur greets Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald after a game. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Seattle Seahawks limited the Arizona Cardinals to under 200 yards of offense. They averaged 3.9 yards per play and 4.5 yards per pass.

And somehow, you can actually make an argument that they have something to celebrate, because all of that was a significant improvement over what happened back in Week 2. The only thing that was missing was points.

Anatomy of a Sweep

Let’s understand exactly how remarkable an accomplishment this is for the Seahawks. Arizona ran a total of 98 offensive plays across the two games this season. Their season totals stand at: 10 points, 349 yards (229 passing and 120 rushing), 23 first downs, and 7/25 conversions on third down. Not only is that single-game production, it’s bad single-game production.

Seattle Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori (3) reacts after breaking up a pass intended for Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride (85). | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Remember also that the Seahawks did not have Ty Okada or (basically) Nick Emmanwori in the first game, or Leonard Williams and Uchenna Nwosu in this second bout. The Cardinals’ offense went through radical changes across the two games, with pieces swapped out at almost every position. Neither iteration was able to do anything.

Understanding The Cardinals

The Cardinals are not a good team. But their offense has generally done a good job moving the ball and throwing some points up on the board. Their season low outside of the Seattle games in yards is 270 against the New York Giants, and they’ve gone over 327 in every other game. They’ve also scored at least 16 points in their non-Seahawk games.

Seattle Seahawks linebacker Drake Thomas (32) tackles Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride (85). | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

It’s a team that you might beat, but it’s not a team you turn the lights out on offensively. Overall, it seems like Mike LaFleur has done fairly well in imparting his wisdom and making improvements into his offense during his first season. So this achievement is no small thing, and it should be taken as a testament to how great this defense is right now.

Establishing Early Dominance

Football is a game of matchups. Certain players do well against other certain players for some hard-to-define reasons, and some systems and schemes work great against others. So when you’re looking at a Cardinals-Seahawks game, you’re also looking at the early pattern of how Mike LaFleur and Mike Macdonald match up against each other.

Arizona Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur during the second quarter against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

How that matchup squares up will go a long way in determining how the next several years of this rivalry will go. And if these two games are indicative of what we can expect between those two, then that’s a big advantage towards the Seahawks. Macdonald didn’t just win this round. He scored an early knockout.

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