Double Coverage: Cardinals vs. Seahawks

We’ve done it before and now we’re doing it again.

Prior to Arizona’s Week 10 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks, we reached out to 710AM Seattle’s Brady Henderson for some thoughts on the Cardinals’ opponent.

Henderson covers the Seahawks for MyNorthwest.com and can give us all a better look at the two-time defending NFC West champs, so it is for that reason I asked him a handful of questions to help better prepare us all for the Week 17 clash.

*Note: Brady did the same thing for his site, asking me questions about the Cardinals. Those answers can be found here.

Adam Green: Up until last week’s surprising home loss to the Rams, the Seahawks had been one of the hottest teams in the NFL. Was their stretch of dominance a product of their schedule or have they really turned things around since losing to the Cardinals in Week 10?

Brady Henderson: That clunker of a performance against St. Louis has everyone wondering that exact question, and I can’t say that I have a definitive answer. I’m inclined to believe that what the Seahawks did during that five-game winning streak was more real than it was merely a product of playing bad teams. It certainly helped that they faced San Francisco, Baltimore and Cleveland during that stretch, but they also beat Pittsburgh in a shootout and played their most complete game of the season in a blowout win over the playoff-bound Vikings in Minnesota. Some of the numbers during that stretch are staggering. Russell Wilson threw 19 touchdowns and no interceptions. Seattle’s defense got  torched against Pittsburgh, but in the other four games it allowed a combined two touchdowns. And as ugly as that St. Louis game was on Sunday, the issues were with the Seahawks’ offense and not so much their defense, which only allowed 205 yards and 16 points. That loss was troubling, especially for Seattle’s offensive line, but it seems like the Seahawks were playing too well for too long to write that stretch off as a fluke after one bad game.

AG: No Marshawn Lynch, no Thomas Rawls, no Jimmy Graham, no problem? Are Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin enough offense to carry Seattle, or which players am I not thinking of who can cause some serious damage?

BH: Wilson and Baldwin have been a historically prolific duo in recent weeks, hooking up for 11 touchdowns over the last five games. Before the St. Louis game, everything with Seattle’s passing game seemed to be working to near-perfection, so much so that some people started wondering if Seattle could become a pass-first offense. That’s not happening. The Seahawks will still run the ball primarily, and at least for another week, they’ll have to do it without Marshawn Lynch. Christine Michael and Bryce Brown were an effective duo the week before against Cleveland, but Seattle only managed a season-low 60 yards rushing against St. Louis. One other player on Seattle’s offense to keep in mind is rookie Tyler Lockett, who has been Seattle’s No. 3 wide receiver but just as productive as Jermaine Kearse despite playing fewer snaps.

AG: While the 13-2 Cardinals are getting all the national love and respect as a legitimate Super Bowl contender or favorite, inside the locker room the players still say the Seahawks are the team to beat and have what they want. How do the Seahawks view the Cardinals?

BH: I don’t know if there’s necessarily a consensus on how Seattle’s players view Arizona. There’s definitely a healthy respect for what the Cardinals have done offensively and the challenges that their defense poses, especially with all the pressure it brings. The Seahawks have seen both. That said, a popular sentiment shared both this week and right after that earlier meeting that’s as well as Arizona played, a lot of Seattle’s issues were self-inflicted. Specifically, penalties that put the Seahawks in unmanageable third-down situations on offense. There were also some costly defensive penalties, including one on third down that extended what turned out to be Arizona’s go-ahead scoring drive in the fourth quarter. “It’s hard to stop offense that way, when they get an extra down,” cornerback Richard Sherman said Wednesday. “That’s what we’ve got to try to limit.”

AG: When these teams last met in Seattle, the Legion of Boom seemed more like the Legion of, well, I don’t know, but something not nearly as intimidating as Boom. Carson Palmer threw for 363 yards and three touchdowns while Arizona also got solid contributions on the ground. What can the Seahawks do to try to slow down what has been one of the NFL’s highest-scoring and most balanced offenses?

BH: In addition to getting off the field on third down, they need to be better in two areas: tackling and defending the deep ball. Cary Williams, who is no longer in the picture, got beat deep on one of Michael Floyd’s touchdowns, which was also the result of a stellar throw and catch. Sherman also got beat deep, including on Floyd’s other long touchdown. The Seahawks were statistically the best team in the league in 2013 and 2014 at defending the deep ball (they allowed the fewest completions of at least 25 yards), but that has at times been an issue this season. It certainly was in that game. So was Seattle’s tackling down the stretch. Andre Ellington’s game-sealing touchdown run was the most obvious example. Seattle’s secondary has changed some personnel since that game. Williams is out and both DeShawn Shead and Jeremy Lane have been playing right cornerback opposite Sherman. Kelcie McCray has played most of the last three games at strong safety in place of Kam Chancellor, whose bruised tailbone could keep him out again Sunday against Arizona.

AG: I’m sure the coaches and players are all saying the right things, but what is the vibe like? Do the Seahawks feel like a great team that is just getting ready to strike or have they taken too many shots and received too many punches to feel as confident as they have in the past?

BH: From the outside looking in, at least, it feels a lot different after the St. Louis game. Before that, the Seahawks had the look of a team that could get back to the Super Bowl, even if it meant knocking off either or both of the top two seeds on the road to get there. That’s how well Seattle was playing. The St. Louis game raised some questions, though. Can the Seahawks still run the ball against a good defense without their top two options at tailback? And even when Lynch comes back, how effective will he be? The play of Seattle’s offensive line was most troubling. That group had transformed from a liability earlier in the season into arguably a strength, one of the reasons for Seattle’s second-half surge. Pass-protection was the most noticeable area of improvement, but Wilson was under constant pressure Sunday against St. Louis, sacked four times and hit nine other times. The run-blocking was also an issue until the second half, by which point the Seahawks were forced to throw to catch up.  How far the Seahawks go in the postseason will depend largely on what that performance against St. Louis represented, both for their offensive line and the team as a whole. Was it just a one-week misstep against a team that always plays Seattle tough? Or was it a sign of regression back to their early-season form?

AG: And finally, what’s the final score going to be?

BH: Predicting NFL games in general is tough. Predicting games between Seattle and Arizona is particularly tough. This one is no different, especially with Seattle’s injury-related uncertainties. In addition to Chancellor, Seattle could be without two starting offensive linemen as left tackle Russell Okung and right guard J.R. Sweezy are both question marks. So is Michael Bennett, who’s Seattle’s best defensive lineman. If Seattle is short-handed and if Bruce Arians follows through with his stated intention to play Arizona’s starters, then the Cardinals have the edge. Arizona 27, Seattle 23.

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