The Arizona Cardinals are the NFL’s background actors. They’re extras. The Cardinals fill space, try to act natural, move without purpose, and rarely go onto bigger and better things. Most of the time you won’t even notice them until someone in the background makes a funny face.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals may have been so anonymous that even the Seahawks almost forgot about them on Thursday. Despite many opportunities to win the game by a multiple-touchdown score, Seattle had to rely on Arizona’s kicker gifting them the ball at the 40 from a bad kickoff and Jason Myers making a redemption 52-yard field goal to win 23-20.
“I’ve seen him play golf. He’s a stud, bro,” said Mike Macdonald after the game.
The Seahawks had many opportunities to “big time” the Cardinals like an egomaniacal movie star, but much like Week 2 against the Steelers they squandered early chances to blow them out. Even so, the Seahawks were too good for Arizona and improved to 3-1 on the season.
We may soon be having a conversation of where Sam Darnold ranks among the NFL’s top-10 quarterbacks. He’s not any worse than that this season.
Darnold went 18-of-26 for 242 yards with a touchdown, improving his passer rating to 109.79 on the season. That’s a 70% completion percentage and 9.05 yards per attempt.
Stats aren’t everything and passer rating is even less consequential than most, but when we put Darnold’s big time throws under a microscope, the not-a-bust-anymore quarterback is as clutch and reliable as anybody that the Seahawks have had under center in a long time.
Just looking at Seattle’s last two drives, looking to put the Cardinals away as they were squandering a 14-point fourth quarter lead, Darnold threw a 36-yard dot to Jaxon Smith-Njigba on the right sideline. After Myers’ semi-shanked-kinda-life 53-yard attempt to end that drive and the Cardinals drove down the field to tie the score 20-20, Darnold showed resiliency in bringing the Seahawks back to field goal range almost immediately.
A 22-yard banger to JSN on the left sideline with :18 seconds left sealed that Myers would have no less than a chance to redeem himself, which he did.
Darnold has not been perfect on all 100 pass attempts this season, and no quarterback ever is, but every time the Seahawks have needed him to drive the offense down the field, even including the Week 1 loss to the 49ers (40-yard completion to JSN), he’s proven that when you’re a Jet you’re actually not a Jet all the way.
How would you grade Sam Darnold’s first four starts with the Seahawks? Is he better than you expected or are these about the returns you thought Seattle was getting on their $100 million free agent? I’ll be reposting some of your comments on Monday:
The Seahawks sure could have been up by a lot
Same as Week 2, the Seahawks played like one of the best teams in the NFL but only 90-some percent of the time. They negated goodwill with mistakes and failed execution, for example:
Went for it on fourth down on their first drive but failed the try by Zach Charbonnet
Coby Bryant intercepted Kyler Murray but Tyrice Knight forced a fumble that was recovered by Arizona, leading to 3 points for the Cardinals
Intercepted Murray again, but a 15-yard taunting penalty by Kenneth walker negated a potential third-and-short and took Seattle out of field goal range
Settled for another field goal after a JSN holding penalty negated a Charbonnet touchdown run
Personally, I’ll take this and a 3-1 record over the Seahawks playing better but being 2-2 or 1-3, which we’ve seen happen in the past. Wins are what matters in the NFL and the Seahawks are now 2-1 in the NFC, which is preferable to the 0-3 start they had in the conference last season.
The Cardinals fell to 0-2 in the NFC West, pushing them a little bit further out of contention, albeit very early in the year.
Passing Advantage
Being a good rushing offense with a great rushing defense is ideal, but in modern football many Super Bowl teams win the yards per pass attempt battle. I know, I know, “yards per pass attempt battle???”
Even the 2013 Seahawks know about this: 6th in NY/A offense and 1st in NY/A defense.
The Seahawks averaged 7.9 yards per pass attempt and held Kyler Murray to 3.5 yards per pass attempt. Much of Murray’s success came in the fourth quarter. Seattle entered the night ranked second in NY/A and 15th on defense. They could be #1 and top-10 by next week.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s lack of opportunities was one of the stories of the night. He ended with four catches for a game-leading 79 yards.
The Seahawks had six sacks, including two by Uchenna Nwosu and 1.5 by Leaonrd Williams.
Ernest Jones had his second interception of the season. Along with Derion Kendrick, that’s four interceptions this season by former Rams.
What were some of your takeaways from Thursday night?
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Seaside Joe 2397
Coby was down before he fumbled. The holding call on JSN was bs. And I’m ready for Riq to be sent to the “ready squad” or traded to Uncle Pete in Vegas for a 6th rounder.
Yes Darnold is better than I expected. Because of so many factors:
- was worried about our OL
- saw him wither up and die under playoff pressure
- brand new OC/playbook
- all of the bad tape on him
But he's been savvy, has played within himself, will throw it away if needed, can run better than I expected, also more accurate than I expected, and clearly there's chemistry with JSN. Pretty happy with him actually.
And I do agree he's firmly a Top 10 QB and as such, having him for 3/$100 is a great deal.