Seahawks Hope To School Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium
By Rob Shumate
Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports
The Seahawks look to keep their winning ways rolling this weekend. They face a formidable opponent in the Arizona Cardinals, a team that they split with last year. In fact, it was Arizona that officially welcomed Russell Wilson into the league…by handing him a four point loss. Mr. Wilson was able to exact a bit of revenge with a 58-0 shellacking of the Cardinals late in the year. Each team winning on their home field last year begs the question, ‘will home field advantage prove just as fruitful this year?’. —-Shaking the Magic 8-ball—- ‘Don’t count on it’
I will be honest, from a fan’s point of view I would love to have a NFL game every night of the week but I don’t think my productivity could take that….and my wife would surely disown me. Thursday night games don’t do much for me; I don’t like our players having to get ready in three days and then having 10 days for our next game. I think it just throws everything off and messes up the football circadian rhythm of the players. I understand that both teams have the same amount of time to prepare and therefore this becomes more of a coach’s battle, and if that is the case then the nod goes to Pete Carroll. But for the time being I will just bite my lip and enjoy the game like any good fan should.
The Arizona Cardinals don’t exactly instill fear based on their rankings: Passing yards-#18, Rushing yards-#24, Opponents passing yards-#19, Opponents rushing yards-#5. I learned long ago to throw rankings out the window, they are only good for bragging, but they don’t prove anything on the field. The Cardinals have a decent defense from the way I see it. Tyrann Mathieu and Patrick Peterson will want to put their mark on the game by stopping the Seahawk’s offense.
There has been a lot of talk about our offensive passing inefficiency. I have a feeling that Arizona will have plenty of chances on Thursday to showcase their talents because I think Coach Carroll is going to turn Russell loose more in this game, which is easy to do when you have one of the best running backs in the league in Marshawn Lynch. I hope that Sidney Rice is able to make a statement…I just hope that the statement is akin to ‘I have arrived’ and not ‘Can you give me directions to the Seahawks game?’.
Week 6 saw both teams get hit with the injury bug. Calais Campbell had what looked like a potentially serious injury and was carted off of the field, thankfully he is doing well, but it is unknown if he will play. There are many players for the Cardinals listed as ‘Probable’ to include John Abraham, Larry Fitzgerald, Karlos Dansby and Rob Housler, among others. In my opinion the injury bug took a deeper bite out of Seattle with Bobby Wagner and Chris Clemons being listed as ‘Out’ for tomorrow’s game.
I have full faith and confidence that our second string players can pitch in and make their absence as invisible as possible. We continue to be without Breno Giacomini and Spencer Ware which is becoming a familiar tune. They have listed Marshawn Lynch was ‘probable’ for the game, which is like saying it is probable that the sun will come up tomorrow. Just counting the days until one, Percy Harvin, joins the team.
We will have to keep an eye on Carson Palmer, a quarterback that can still put up 300 yards, and Larry Fitzgerald is known to give other teams ‘fitz’ (see what I did there). The rest of their WR corps is fairly pedestrian. Rashard Mendenhall and Andre Ellington seem to be carrying the running game lately. Our defense continues to play well, with our passing defense statistically better than our running defense. That doesn’t bode well for one Mr. Carson and company. We will be without Chris Clemons, but that just gives more of a chance for Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril and Clint McDonald to get increased minutes on the field…drop-off is negligible.
Arizona continues to be a tough place for us to play but I think we have gained a lot of confidence and this team is ready to win another road game. Okay, okay, lets just go to the quintessential football authority to see if the Seahawks will win tomorrow night. “Will the Seattle Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals?” —-Shaking the Magic 8-ball—- ‘Signs point to yes’
Go Hawks!