After arguably their biggest win of the season last Sunday in Washington, the Seattle Seahawks return home to face the now Jacoby Brissett-led Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals are coming off their biggest win of the season Monday night in Dallas, snapping a five-game losing streak of one-possession losses. One of those losses came against the Seahawks in Week 4, when Seattle won 23–20 on a walk-off Jason Myers field goal. I expect this game to be a lot different.
The Cardinals have played much more efficiently on offense since Brissett took over at quarterback for Kyler Murray. They’re averaging 286.6 passing yards per game in three games with Brissett, compared to just 192.4 yards in five games with Murray. This improvement has helped Marvin Harrison Jr. tremendously, as he’s finally starting to perform at the level expected when the Cardinals drafted him.
For the Seahawks, they added some more firepower on offense by trading for Rashid Shaheed from the Saints at the trade deadline. I was hoping they would trade for a right guard like Wyatt Teller from the Browns, but I still like the addition of a deep threat like Shaheed. It’s unclear how much Shaheed will play this Sunday, but I’d still expect him to get some snaps,especially with the Seahawks still banged up heading into this game. We already know they’ll be without safety Julian Love for the next three games after he was placed on IR, and linebacker Ernest Jones will be out for at least this week. Rookie receiver Tory Horton didn’t practice Thursday after his two-touchdown performance against the Commanders, and Cooper Kupp was still only a limited participant in practice.
Related: https://area51sportsnet.com/seahawks-acquire-rashid-shaheed-from-saints/
These teams already played in a tightly contested matchup earlier this season, and I expect the same again this week. Here are my three keys for a Seattle win.
1. Finding a Consistent Run Game
I’ll give last game a pass because it was a blowout, and I’m pretty sure this was a point in an earlier game preview, but the Seahawks still haven’t been able to run the ball consistently all season. When Seattle brought in Klint Kubiak, he was supposed to elevate the Seahawks’ run game, but we’re ten weeks into the season and they have just the 22nd-best rushing attack in the NFL. It’s an even tougher pill to swallow when you consider the talent in the running back room. Hopefully sooner rather than later the Seahawks can find a way to get the run game going, because once they do, good luck trying to stop this offense.
2. Pressure Brissett
The last time the Seahawks played the Cardinals, they sacked Kyler Murray six times. That has to be the same plan of attack for Brissett. Seattle played Brissett last year when he was with the Patriots and struggled to bring him down. They sacked him three times, but it easily could have been more. Pressuring Brissett is massive this Sunday, keeping him uncomfortable in the pocket and not allowing him to get into a rhythm will be huge for the Seahawks.
3. Keep Feeding JSN
You might be thinking to yourself, “Jaden, the Seahawks have been doing this all year, why is this a point?” To that I would say if you don’t remember, in the last game the Cardinals held Smith-Njigba to a season-low 79 yards on just four catches. Seattle couldn’t get the ball to him at all and had to resort to running toss plays out of the backfield for him. The entire Seahawks offense has revolved around feeding JSN, and even with Shaheed coming in, I don’t expect that philosophy to change.
Kickoff is set for 1:05 p.m. at Lumen Field, and with the NFC West as tight as it is, every game is huge.
