Rapid reactions: Cardinals sloppy in Seattle as division lead slips away

The Arizona Cardinals fell to 6-5 and saw their division lead and four-game winning streak come to an end after their 16-6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

Sloppy and slippery conditions in Seattle saw the Cardinals offense struggle as the run game mustered only 49 yards on 14 carries. Quarterback Kyler Murray had 285 passing yards but tossed an interception that was returned for a touchdown and was sacked five times.

Arizona Sports hosts and reporters gave their biggest takeaways from the Cardinals’ loss:

How did Arizona Sports hosts and writers react to the Cardinals’ loss to Seahawks?

Tyler Drake, Arizona Sports Cardinals beat writer and Cardinals Corner co-host: Ugly, ugly, ugly. The Cardinals entered Week 12’s game against the Seattle Seahawks needing to plant their flag as a legit playoff contender. That didn’t happen thanks to a sputtering offense. Arizona’s defense was the bright spot of Sunday’s action. When that happens, more times than not this season, we’re here talking about a Cardinals win. Instead, the run game was nonexistent while quarterback Kyler Murray regressed after stacking weeks. Toss in a 3-for-12 third-down conversion rate and that’s all she wrote. No run game and an inconsistent K1 spells disaster — even if the defense played the way it did. There’s still plenty of football to play, but Arizona must bounce back these next two weeks with Minnesota and Round 2 with Seattle looming.

Vince Marotta, co-host of Bickley & Marotta Mornings: A thorough analysis isn’t necessary to describe the Seahawks’ 16-6 win over the Cardinals.

The players in the blue and neon green uniforms were by far the more physical, focused and desperate group on the field at Lumen Field on Sunday.

We’ve heard all about the Cardinals’ offensive identity — that they’re a physical, run-first football team. That strategy was scrapped early in a game that was never out of reach. The Seattle defensive line ABSOLUTELY DOMINATED the Cardinals’ offensive line, which was supposed to be bolstered by the return of starting right tackle Jonah Williams. Arizona couldn’t run block (on the few occasions they tried to). James Conner wasn’t his normal battering ram self when he needed to be due to lack of room to run. He had eight yards on seven carries. The Cardinals threw 37 times (dropped back 42 times) and ran it 14 times. Not an ideal mix. They had no answer for DT Leonard Williams, who partied like it was 2016.

Kyler Murray took a huge step backward in Seattle, in my opinion. The biggest play of the game — Coby Bryant’s 69-yard interception return for a touchdown in the third quarter that gave Seattle a 10-point lead — came on a crucial fourth and short where Murray looked like he was going to attempt to run for the first down, but Devon Witherspoon did a great job to cut off the edge and force Murray into a terrible decision to throw, followed by a worse pass that sailed over Michael Wilson’s head into Bryant’s hands. For as comfortable as Murray has looked for a large part of the season, he looked equally fidgety on Sunday.

Defensively, the Cardinals played well enough to win. They held Seattle’s offense to 10 points, 285 total yards, 2.6 yards per rush and sacked Geno Smith five times. But the concern remains third-down defense. They haven’t been good on third downs this season but actually did a decent job for a good portion of the game, getting four of five sacks on third down and forcing a red-zone turnover on Garrett Williams’ interception early in the fourth quarter. But when they absolutely, positively needed to get a stop in the fourth, they couldn’t. Seattle converted three straight third-down tries on a soul-crushing 13-play, 49-yard drive that took 8:12 off the clock and ended in a field goal from Jason Myers that stretched the lead to 10 points.

The Cardinals were 31st in the league in that category heading into Sunday, and Seattle’s 50% conversion rate Sunday won’t instill much confidence that things are going to get better on that front any time soon.

John Gambadoro, co-host of Burns & Gambo: You just had a feeling early that this was not going to be the Cardinals’ day. The Cardinals had no rhythm on offense the entire game and the Seattle pass rush was relentless throughout this contest. Arizona punted the first three times they had the ball and on five of their six first-half possessions.

Kyler Murray was sacked twice on the Cardinals’ first possession and things never really got better from there. Arizona was held without a touchdown for just the third time that Murray has started a game. He did throw for 285 yards but was sacked five times and threw an interception. The Cardinals could NOT run the ball rushing for just 49 yards on 14 carries in what became a one-dimensional passing game for the visitors. Arizona threw the ball 37 times compared to those 14 rushes.

The Cardinals were just 3-for-12 on third down. We often say this when the Suns lose a game in which they don’t hit many three pointers – the math didn’t work in this one. All is not lost. The Cardinals get Seattle again at home in a few weeks and have contests coming up against Carolina and New England. Now while those teams are not good, the Panthers did push the Chiefs today so Arizona cannot afford any let downs playing teams they are supposed to beat. The only thing you wanted with the two games against Seattle was a split. That is still possible. Not the end-of-the-world type of loss, just have to get them when they come here.