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Week 14: Arizona Cardinals (4-8) @ Seattle Seahawks (7-5)
The Arizona Cardinals travel to the Clink to battle the Seattle Seahawks.
The Seahawks are coming off a huge road win in Chicago, where they performed in the clutch, beating the Bears 24-17. Russell Wilson performed good statistically (23/27, 293 yd, 2 TD) but the stats don't tell the whole story: Wilson was amazing, completing 97 & 80 yd TD drives in the 4th qtr & overtime to pull out the win. Marshawn Lynch was held under 100 for the second straight week, but he averaged 4.6 YPC off of 19 carries for 87 yds.
The defense remained an issue on the road. Last Sunday marked the fourth straight road game where the Seahawks blew a 4th QTR lead. This time, after Wilson led the Hawks to take the lead 17-14 with a 97-yd TD drive with only 24 seconds left in the game, the secondary allowed Jay Cutler to complete a prayer to Brandon Marshall for 56 yds, which allowed the Bears to kick the field goal to send the game into overtime. If it weren't for Wilson giving the defense no chance of blowing it in overtime, the Hawks might have lost the game.
Speaking of Cutler, he was good statistically (17/26, 233 yd, 2 TD) but the key stat: 1 sack. Once again, the pass rush didn't show up on the road. Thankfully, the noise at CenturyLink should help give the defense a boost, and hopefully, they'll have better refs this time around that might actually call holding penalties and allow for fumbles to be scrapped for, rather than blowing the play dead prematurely.
The Cardinals, on the other hand... the struggle is MAD real, son. They might have the worst QB situation in the league right now. They have had John Skelton (a QB who lost his job two different times, once to injury), Kevin Kolb (a QB who can't stay away from any injuries) and Ryan Lindley (a QB who adds insult to injury) rotating on this struggle carousel. It's honestly so bad, that if Larry Fitzgerald were to pull a Carlson Palmer and hold his own career hostage just to initiate a trade, no one would blame him. It's pretty obvious at this point that Ken Whisenhunt is terrible at evaluating QB talent.
Speaking of Fitz, his underwhelming stats can't be looked at in a vacuum; even though he's put up better numbers with similar QB situations in years prior, this season is a whole other animal. SO, with that said, let's not kid ourselves: he's still elite, and the Seahawks secondary still has to worry about him. Problem is, he's playing with QB's who can't get the ball anyway near him, and with Richard Sherman & Brandon Browner still playing while their appeals are being set up, you can expect that trend to continue.
The defense remains solid, ranking 7th in the league overall. In fact, ponder this: would they be a Top 5 defense if the offense wouldn't continually place the unit in short-field situations constantly with all the turnovers & 3-&-outs? When you're on the field as much as they are, you're eventually going to break.
Prediction: Hawks win big here... and I mean BIG. No Arizona QB can hang with Wilson right now.
Seahawks 35, Cardinals 0
EDIT: That score may seem illogical... but, it's the most logical score I can think of. I don't see any way Arizona can score, and their defense can't hold forever...
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jWILL
Last edited by jWILL253; 12-04-2012 at 11:01 AM.
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12-04-2012, 10:58 AM
