Rapid reactions: Cardinals get overpowered by Seahawks in disappointing step back

Not a whole lot went right for the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in a 17-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, a step back for the team after its exciting comeback win in Dallas last week.

Quarterback Gardner Minshew made his first start with the Cardinals, but the offense failed to reach 200 total yards.

Seahawks defensive tackle Leonard Williams was out with injury, but Seattle’s defense dominated the line of scrimmage anyway.

And an area where the Seahawks had been brutal this season was their red zone defense (83%), but they held the Cardinals to 0-for-2.

Arizona’s defense had a solid game overall, but the offensive malaise dropped the Cardinals to 3-6 entering the second half of the schedule and the trade deadline on Tuesday.

Arizona Sports hosts share their rapid reactions to the loss:

Cardinals rapid reactions: Week 9 vs. Seahawks

Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta:

Sunday’s snoozer of a 14-points loss in Seattle was a good reminder that nothing that the Arizona Cardinals do against the Dallas Cowboys is real.

It can’t be used as a measure of growth. It can’t be used as a source of optimism for a brighter future.

It’s simply a 60-minute mirage and should be judged solely as a single-game anomaly.

That’s an easy conclusion to come to because absolutely NOTHING positive from last week showed up against the Seahawks, who continued their domination in this divisional “rivalry.” Seattle has beaten the Cardinals 11 straight times. That shouldn’t happen in professional football, but here we are.

After handling the Cowboys in Dallas last season, the Cardinals reeled off nine straight losses, starting with a loss in Seattle. Let’s hope we’re not going to see a repeat screening of that movie.

John Gambadoro, co-host of Burns & Gambo:

The Cardinals have surprised us this year with three wins on the road against the Chargers, Rams and Cowboys. They had another opportunity to win a road game in Seattle and improve their record to 4-5, but alas, this is not a good matchup for Arizona.

Seattle is just too good defensively and adequate enough offensively where Arizona is just overmatched in most areas when it plays them. The Cardinals scored three points, so Minshew Mania was very short lived after the remarkable comeback versus Dallas last week.

This was a HUGE game, as it was the last game before the trade deadline. A win and 4-5 record with upcoming games against the Commanders, Eagles, Jets, Saints and Raiders, and you could make a compelling argument to stand pat and not trade Josh Sweat, Budda Baker, Zaven Collins or anyone else who may be of interest to a contending team.

But a loss and a 3-6 record makes it all but certain the Cardinals will not be a playoff contender — too big of a hole to dig out of with only eight games left. So, if I am Monti Ossenfort, the Cardinals general manager, who has already made two trades, I take all the calls that come in and try to add assets to the 2027 draft class.

This loss also brings us that much closer to Beck time. Carson Beck is now the No. 2 quarterback and you have to think if the Cardinals lose to the Rams next week and the Chiefs the week after that, Beck will take the reins of a 3-8 team with six  games left — five at home and the bye week to get some extra work in. It is the one thing this fan base is clamoring for, the one reason to stay with this team through what will very likely be another losing season.

Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo: 

Is one game enough to decide if the Cards have seen enough of Gardner Minshew? Or does he get one more against a defense that isn’t one of the toughest in the NFL? That is the question for this week as Minshew mania met its match against this Seattle defense, even without one of their most important players. I tend to think that if they give him one more, they might as well give him two. If Carson Beck’s debut doesn’t happen at home versus the Rams then it probably shouldn’t happen on the road against the Chiefs. We’ll find out soon enough, but the organization made it clear … Beck’s presence on the roster was a factor in their decision to trade Jacoby Brissett.

And speaking of trades, the deadline is on Tuesday at straight up 2 o’clock. With the loss, the Cards drop to 3-6. To get to nine wins they’d have to go 6-2 the rest of the way and that’s assuming nine wins is enough to get into the playoffs; it’s probably not. The Cards have already amassed a small war chest of picks for next year’s draft: six picks in the first four rounds.

Trading Josh Sweat and Budda Baker could add two more good picks to the tally. At this point, it feels safe to think Sweat will be on a new team on Tuesday. Budda is more complicated. Is he gone next year anyway? He has already said he wants to stay. How much does that factor into the decision? His future is tough to predict but my hunch is he stays.

Mitch Vareldzis, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night:

(Sigh), at least we had that one game against the Cowboys.

The battle of backup QBs lived up to the billing. And I mean that as a diss.

Gardner Minshew’s magic only worked against the terrible Cowboys defense. Against the Seahawks? A different story. Drew Lock wasn’t much better, but he had the excuse of an elbow injury.

It wasn’t like there were dreadful turnovers or a defining momentum shift. It was just Seattle’s defense bottling up the Arizona run game and forcing Minshew to beat them (and he couldn’t).

I get it. This team injury-wise is in bad shape, so winning was already going to be a challenge. It also puts further emphasis on capitalizing at this year’s trade deadline.

The team is not healthy enough to make it to the finish line, and even at full strength, I don’t think they’re good enough to compete with some of the best teams in the conference.

Get some future assets. Further build the foundation for the next great Cardinals team.

It’s a shame that this is the cycle they’re stuck in.

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