Arizona Cardinals have trouble ‘getting out of our own way’ on offense vs. Seahawks
Nov 24, 2014, 1:44 AM | Updated: 1:53 am
It’s not like the Arizona Cardinals’ offense has lit the league on fire in 2014, but Sunday in Seattle was a 60-minute struggle.
The Cardinals managed only a field goal in a 19-3 loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks at CenturyLink Field.
Quarterback Drew Stanton, making his fifth start of the season, completed 14-of-26 passes for 149 yards and an interception. He wasn’t exactly helped out by the running game, either: Arizona had just 64 yards rushing on 20 attempts.
“Getting out of our own way,” head coach Bruce Arians responded when asked what the biggest issue was with the offense. “We ran the ball OK, but we didn’t protect the quarterback well enough in the first half. Then we got that nice drive before the half and we don’t catch the touchdown.
“Everything in today’s game was self-inflicted.”
The drive Arians referred to was a deliberate 15-play, 74-yard march that took Arizona to the Seattle 5-yard line. On third-and-goal from the 5, Stanton rocketed a ball into the end zone that literally hit receiver Jaron Brown between the numbers. They had to settle for a 23-yard field goal from Chandler Catanzaro.
The Cardinals wouldn’t get close to the red zone again.
“If we catch that ball before the half, it’s 9-7 and we’re able to run the ball more in the second half,” Arians said.
Arizona was without wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, whose streak of 110 consecutive games played came to an end. The veteran injured his left knee in the first half of last week’s win over Detroit.
Fitzgerald finished that game and caught a key third-down pass in the fourth quarter that allowed the Cardinals to melt the remainder of the clock. But his condition didn’t improve during the week of practice and he was placed on Sunday’s inactive list.
“(Fitzgerald’s absence) didn’t change the game plan at all,” Arians said. “But when you take a player of his passion out of the game, it changes.”
Stanton was also dinged up late in the game after taking a hit from Seattle’s Bruce Irvin, but his head coach is confident he’ll be good to go as the team takes their 9-2 record to Atlanta next Sunday.
“Yeah, he’s going to be fine. He’s got a little bit of an ankle (injury),” Arians said.
The Cardinals’ six-game winning streak is over, and they lost ground to the Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers — who beat the Washington Redskins — in the NFC West standings Sunday. San Francisco hosts Seattle Thursday night at Levi’s Stadium.
