The Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals took the field on Thursday Night Football with 2-1 records, both looking to prove themselves on a national
The Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals took the field on Thursday Night Football with 2-1 records, both looking to prove themselves on a national stage with a victory against an intradivisional opponent. What we saw tonight is that both teams will be a potential playoff threat this season.
Let’s dive into the winners and losers from the NFL game tonight on Thursday Night Football. Examining the best and worst performances from the Cardinals vs Seahawks game.
Winner: Calais Campbell Keeps Defying Father Time
Let’s first put things into perspective for 38-year-old defensive lineman Calais Campbell. He was a second-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, the same class as Chris Long (retired after the 2018 season), Matt Forte (retired after the 2017 season), and Jamaal Charles (retired after the 2018 season). Meanwhile, Campbell is back where his NFL career began and playing at a level fairly close to 2014-16, when he made the Pro Bowl with the Cardinals.
Campbell now has two games this season with two-plus sacks. Adding some historical context to that, he last accomplished that feat in 2017. Sitting at four sacks on the season through four games, the future Hall of Famer has a chance to record his first season with eight-plus sacks since 2018. Other NFL teams pursued Campbell this offseason, but he chose to return to Arizona. If the Cardinals were to fall out of playoff contention by the start of November, though, it’s fair to wonder if teams might inquire about him.
Loser: Arizona Cardinals’ Offensive Line Collapsing
While sacks can be a quarterback stat, this was a night the Cardinals’ offensive line will want to forget. From a run-blocking perspective, Trey Benson had one long run (12 yards), and the rest of his carries resulted in a 3.3 yards-per-carry average. Add on top of that the seven quarterback hits, six sacks, and five tackles for loss, and you have a rough performance from Arizona’s front. Now, through four games of this season, it’s evident how badly this team misses offensive line coach Klayton Adams, who is now the Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator.
Winner: Sam Darnold is Earning his Contract
First, we were critical of the Seahawks’ investment in Sam Darnold coming into the season. That was based on the situation he was entering—a quarterback prone to imploding when pressured and being put behind a woeful offensive line. What’s become clear is that the pass protection is sufficient, and Darnold has taken some of what he learned from the Minnesota Vikings with him to Seattle. Darnold’s numbers weren’t flashy on Thursday night, but he made some big plays, including the big throw on 3rd-and-6 with five minutes remaining when the Seahawks were on the brink of a collapse. He then delivered the game-winning drive, including another strike to JSN.
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The $33 million salary is fine for a one-year deal, which is really how Seattle structured the three-year, $100.5 million contract to be. As long as Darnold can keep playing like this, the Seahawks are a threat to win the NFC West. The defense and ground game deserve most of the credit for that, but Darnold not making game-deciding mistakes is huge.
Loser: Chad Ryland’s Costly Mistake
It’s the little things that have cost Arizona in the last tfive days, dropping this team from 2-0 to 2-2 with both of those losses coming against NFC West teams. This time around, it was kicker Chad RYland kicking the football short of the landing zone. The penalty allowed Seattle to have the football at the 40-yard line with 27 seconds in the game. Two plays later, Jaxon Smith-Njigba made his second clutch catch of the fourth quarter and this time Jason Meyers hit the big one. Unfortunately for Ryland, his blunder overshadowed a night whehere he made a critical 57-yard field goal.
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Winner: Marvin Harrison Jr Gets Much-Needed Redemption
It’s the little things that have cost Arizona in the last five days, dropping this team from 2-0 to 2-2 with both of those losses coming against NFC West teams. This time around, it was kicker Chad Ryland kicking the football short of the landing zone. The penalty allowed Seattle to have the football at the 40-yard line with 27 seconds left in the game. Two plays later, Jaxon Smith-Njigba made his second clutch catch of the fourth quarter, and this time Jason Myers hit the big one. Unfortunately for Ryland, his blunder overshadowed a night where he made a critical 57-yard field goal.
- Sam Darnold stats vs Cardinals (ESPN): 18-of-26, 242 passing yards, 9.3 ypa, 111.4 QB rating
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Winner: Seattle Seahawks Defense Impresses Again
Coming into Thursday Night Football, the Seahawks’ defense had allowed the sixth-lowest average QB rating (77.5) in the NFL, ranked eighth in yards-per-play average allowed (4.7) and had the sixth-highest turnover rate (16.3 percent) in the NFL. Mike Macdonald’s defense has been on a tear since the second half of last season and that stretch of excellence continued in Week 4 on a short week.
- Seattle Seahwks defense vs Cardinals: 20 points allowed, 4.0 yards-per-play average, 8 pass deflections, 6 sacks, 5 tackles for loss, 40% third-down conversion rate allowed
Arizona was held to just 3 first-half points, putting up less than 100 total yards in two quarters. Seattle’s defensive line created chaos in Arizona’s backfield, helping force 2 Kyler Murray interceptions and the total could’ve been even higher than that. Arizona did make a fourth-quarter really, but Seattle’s defense did put up three outstanding quarters of football in a very close game.
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