Arizona Cardinals 27, Seattle Seahawks 3
That was about the worst game I have ever sat through. If it weren’t for the warm beautiful blue skies, the beautiful Emerald City scenery and the massive consumption of alcohol, this could have been the game that finished me off once and for all.
It may have finished the Seahawks post season hopes as well. Yes, it’s early, only the sixth game after all, but this game was earmarked as big from the moment the schedule came out. Facing the division winner, and Super Bowl loser, from last year was supposed to be a statement game. Unfortunately, the statement yesterday was “Thank God for the bye week.”
The bye week can’t come soon enough either because Seattle needs a chance to regroup. It seemed impossible that the team lined up across from Arizona was the same team that blew out Jacksonville just the week before on that same field. Matt Hasselbeck said in post game comments that the problem was with consistency. He has a point. You can’t get more inconsistent than those two games. Watching the Jacksonville game was like watching on the best HDTV in the world. The Arizona game was like watching a fuzzy black and white TV through a fishbowl.
The play of the game is actually the first quarter. Arizona opened the game with a 10:42 drive that Seattle’s defense was powerless to stop. The book on beating the Cardinals hasn’t changed. You hit Kurt Warner early, late, and often. Keep hitting him, pressure him, take a roughing the passer call even because if you don’t, he will carve you like a plump Thanksgiving turkey with an chain saw.
Warner went 9-for-9 on this drive. Seattle’s defensive line brought pressure but Warner was able to avoid it long enough for his huge receivers to finish their routes against the midget cornerbacks. Short 3rd and 2 passes are easy to complete when your receivers tower over their defenders.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Arizona pooches the kickoff. Seattle fails to cover it and Arizona gets great field position. Same song, next verse and the score is now 14-0.
Finally Seattle’s offense gets their hands on the ball but not for long. Seattle’s patchwork offensive line, which had held up so well with spit and duct tape so far, finally blew up and couldn’t stop the Arizona defensive line. On the third play, Hasselbeck fumbles as he gets sacked. Arizona recovers. That’s the total amount of offense for Seattle in the first quarter.
Here the Seattle defense finds its feet and holds Arizona to a field goal. From that point on, the defense plays a better game. Arizona only scores 10 more points but the damage was done in the first quarter.
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