Cardinals put up 151 yards of offense in 31-7 defeat to defending champion Seahawks

When you play the best defense in ball, you gotta do all the little things right. We did not today.”

Mike LaFleur, Arizona Cardinals Head Coach

SCORING SUMMARY

SEA — D.Lock pass deep right to J.Smith-Njigba for 82 yards, TOUCHDOWN. J.Myers extra point is GOOD, 12:25 - 1st

ARI — J.Brissett pass short left to T.McBride for 2 yards, TOUCHDOWN. C.Ryland extra point is GOOD, 14:57 - 2nd

SEA — D.Lock pass short middle to J.Smith-Njigba for 7 yards, TOUCHDOWN. J.Myers extra point is GOOD, 12:27 - 3rd

SEA — J.Myers 33 yard field goal is GOOD, 6:47 - 3rd

SEA — D.Lock pass short middle to J.Smith-Njigba for 12 yards, TOUCHDOWN. J.Myers extra point is GOOD, 12:40 - 4th

SEA — Direct snap to A.Barner. A.Barner up the middle for 1 yard, TOUCHDOWN. J.Myers extra point is GOOD, 1:11 - 4th

By Zev Black
Mail

GLENDALE — The Arizona Cardinals (1-1) welcomed the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks (2-0) to Arizona in an early divisional matchup. The Seahawks, as road favorites, took care of business, beating the Cardinals 31-7.

Seahawks QB Sam Darnold, who suffered a glute injury early in week one against the Patriots, was ruled out for Sunday’s game. Drew Lock started for Seattle and immediately found the 2025 Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba for an 82-yard touchdown on their second offensive play.

This was Smith-Njigba’s first of three touchdowns on the afternoon. He finished with nine catches for 155 yards and three scores.

“He’s a dang good receiver," Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur said. “The second play of the game, that’s one you obviously want back because it doesn’t really matter who that is… he’s a dang good receiver. He’s arguably the best one.”

After a couple of punts, Arizona put together their first strong drive of the game, running the ball and throwing the ball six times each en route to a 12-play, 61-yard touchdown drive. Jacoby Brissett found his AP All-Pro tight end Trey McBride on a 4th and 2 to even the score at seven.

These were the only points the Seahawks defense allowed all game.

“When you play the best defense in ball, you gotta do all the little things right,” LaFleur said. “We did not today.”

On the ensuing Seahawks drive, rookie RB Jadarian Price got taught a lesson about trying to gain extra yards in the NFL when he got stripped by LB Zaven Collins.

Despite starting the drive with strong field position near midfield, the Cardinals once again went three-and-out. This was Arizona’s second of five drives without a first down in the game.

A couple of punts later, Seattle was the benefactor of an unnecessary roughness penalty, giving them excellent field position at the Arizona 31-yard line.

They quickly got down to a goal-to-go situation, but the Cardinals defense stepped up to prevent four straight runs from getting into the endzone with 1:12 left in the half.

Arizona couldn’t quite get into field goal range, and went into the locker room tied 7-7.

“First half, we didn’t have points per se,” LaFleur said. “But I felt like we had a good grasp of the game in all phases… We were just doing some uncharacteristic stuff, just little detailed stuff. I told the guys that when you play really good teams, you don’t gotta do the extraordinary. You gotta do the ordinary extra.”

Coming out of the half, the Seahawks caught a bit of a break when return man Rashid Shaheed fumbled the kickoff, only for it to be recovered by his teammate and carried  35 more yards to Arizona’s 37.

Four plays later, Lock found Smith-Njigba again in the back of the endzone to give Seattle the lead. 

The wheels then started to fall off the wagon when Brissett overthrew WR Michael Wilson. Safety Julian Love was in perfect position moving from the middle of the field to come away with the interception near the sideline.

Brissett said the throw was a “bad decision.”

Two drives later, after a 33-yard field goal off the right foot of Jason Myers, Lock hit Smith-Njigba yet again in the endzone for his third touchdown of the game to give Seattle a 24-7 and put the game out of reach.

Brissett finished the game 17 for 28 with only 95 passing yards. He threw one touchdown and one interception.

Rookie RB Jeremiyah Love led the team in rushing with 29 yards on nine carries.

Trey McBride once again had more than five receptions, his 39th such game of his career. He finished with eight receptions for 41 yards and the score.

The Cardinals play next at 1:05 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27, against the San Francisco 49ers (2-0) at Levi's Stadium.

Reporter Zev Black can be reached at zblack@iniusa.org. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.