The Arizona Cardinals (3-5) are desperately looking to avoid a sweep by their division rival Seattle Seahawks. A loss on the season would drop them to 3-6, a record that is likely a death sentence for any remaining playoff hopes.
Seattle enters this matchup at 5-3 and is one of the most surprising teams in the league. They were projected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL, yet lead the NFC West and are poised to make a playoff run.
The Cardinals have not had success against the Seahawks in Arizona. They beat Russell Wilson and the Seahawks there in 2020, but prior to that had not won at home since 2012.
The Seahawks lead the all-time series 24-22-1, so the Cardinals will be unable to tie the lead or take the record this season.
With that in mind, how have the last few games gone?
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2022: Seahawks 19, Cardinals 9
This was a miserable outing by the Cardinals. They had a chance to get back to .500 prior to getting DeAndre Hopkins back on Thursday night, but they failed to score an offensive touchdown.
The only touchdown scored by the Cardinals was a blocked punt in the endzone on special teams, a play that should have changed the course of the game.
Following an opening drive field goal, the Cardinals were unable to score any more points. They were forced to go for every fourth down with kicker Matt Amendola having missed a game-tying kick the week prior.
They failed to convert on fourth down on the day and fell to 2-4. To make matters worse, the team lost WR Marquise Brown on the last offensive play of the game to a foot injury. He’s yet to return to the lineup but is projected to do so in a few more weeks.
2021: Seahawks 38, Cardinals 30
This game was incredibly disappointing for the Cardinals Had they won this game, they would have won the NFC West with the Los Angeles Rams also losing that week.
The Seahawks had nothing to play for but pride and absolutely decimated the Cardinals’ defense. Russell Wilson had three passing touchdowns on 238 yards and running back Rashaad Penny iced the game with a 62-yard rushing score.
Kyler Murray was solid on the day with 240 passing yards and a touchdown pass. The offense stalled at times as their 30 points scored is misleading. 14 of those points were basically scored solely by the defense.
OLB Chandler Jones had a strip sack of Russell Wilson on the first drive of the game and Zach Allen returned it for a score. Safety Jalen Thompson had a near pick-six in the third quarter but was stopped just shy of the endzone.
While the defense did give up 38 points, they also did their fair share of scoring. The offense needed to be better in this one
2021: Cardinals 23, Seahawks 13
This game was Colt McCoy’s last as the starting quarterback for the Cardinals. He admirably won two games against division rivals during his three-game stretch as the starter.
Russell Wilson was clearly not ready to return from a serious thumb injury. He was very bad the week prior and did not look good in this one. While the Seahawks had a small comeback chance late, it was too late.
Colt McCoy and the Cardinals had a game-sealing 10-play touchdown drive. McCoy was very good on the day, passing for 328 yards and two touchdowns.
This was the first true breakout game for the newly acquired Zach Ertz. Ertz had 88 receiving yards and two touchdowns. WR A.J. Green also had a nice outing with 78 receiving yards.
The Cardinals advanced to 9-2 after this game. It truly felt as if the Cardinals were a bonafide Super Bowl contender.