The Cardinals were given a stroke of luck when the Carolina Panthers fell flat against their division rival in the Atlanta Falcons. Should the former unbeaten team find a way to lose two weeks in a row to the Buccaneers this Sunday and the Cardinals continue their winning ways then Bruce Arians and company won’t have to fuel up the jet at all as they make their journey towards the Lombardi in the NFC playoff picture. This is going to be a week however that they will definitely need to bring their best as they have done so many times this year as it goes without saying that their opponent is looking to show the world why they are the reigning NFC champions for the past two seasons.
Beasting Back Boss
Marshawn Lynch has not been his usual Skittles eating power back self this season. The former superstar halfback suffered an abdominal injury early in the year and had to undergo a sports hernia surgery following the last matchup between these two squads. Since then the onus of the running game fell on phenom rookie Thomas Rawls who rattled together strong games that made many take notice of the man’s talents. However he later broke his ankle and has been stuck on IR. The injuries to the running back position has forced the team to play Fred Jackson, Bryce Brown and Christine Michael throughout the year. Both Brown and Michael were signed to the roster literally off the street two weeks ago and none of the three have done well in the role of feature back. Combined, the trio racks up 242 yards rushing this year. A significant drop from Rawls’ 830 and Russell Wilson’s own 540 at the quarterback position. If Lynch can come back fully healthy and go back to that kind of bell cow the Seahawks can hitch the wagon to on their way deep into January then this team could stand a chance of a few upsets in the playoffs. Yet the key facet to championship teams in this era is still a strong running game on offense. We’ll see if the Seahawks can produce one at this point with their lack of healthy talent in the backfield.
No Rest For The Weary
The Cardinals can finish no worse than second in the NFC playoffs, but Bruce Arians has no intention of putting his players on a pitch count. Already in the early part of the week Arians said that he finds no benefit to resting players going into a postseason run. That mentality may have been instilled in him back in his days with the Steelers as Arians was often calling plays with his star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger still under center in a week 17 game after already clinching division titles. Arians may have another reason for doing this however as the facts clearly show that Arizona is not a hard place for Seattle to play in. Two straight years now the Seahawks have won the NFC Championship and the NFC West division crown was their ticket into the dance both of those years. Now the fifth seed in the playoffs is in question for them as they must win this contest to earn the right to challenge what is being described as the weakest team in the NFC playoffs in the Redskins. But if the Seahawks can take three straight years of winning in Arizona with them into the second or potentially final round of the conference playoffs then the momentum would clearly be on their side. The Cardinals don’t have to win this game by any normal stretch of the imagination. However, in the playoffs there is always that strange stretch of imagination that can change the way a team feels going into a one and done situation if they go into a stadium they feel they can’t lose in. Or vice versa in the case of the Cardinals in this particular instance.
Legion Of Zoom
The running game in Arizona has been a surprise to many this year as the line was not expected to make such a huge step in improvement from the last campaign. The inclusion of star left guard Mike Iupati was expected to bring the running game forward, but Jared Veldheer and Bobby Massie have both become stars at the tackle positions this season as they lead the way all year long for running backs David Johnson, Andre Ellington and Chris Johnson who is still on the designated to return list for injury. If there is one thing that the Seahawks do well though with their defensive unit it is limit offenses to become one dimensional. This season Seattle has held their opponents to just 85.1 yards per game rushing the ball and their pass defense ranking second in the league doesn’t make things easier for the opposing offense. The last match between these two franchises showed that the run defense wasn’t an issue for Seattle as the leading rusher for the Cardinals was Ellington with only 61 to his name. However Carson Palmer had a field day with this defensive unit as he torched the Seahawks for 363 yards through the air and a total of three touchdowns. Michael Floyd made Richard Sherman look like a middle of the pack corner and the rest of the defense found difficulty in stopping the other targets for Palmer. That Seahawks team is not the same unit however in this battle as they have become an offensive juggernaut since then. They have only scored less than thirty points two times in the next six contests and Doug Baldwin became a sudden lightening rod for Wilson. We’ll see which Seahawk team decides to show up in this contest in Arizona.
The game kicks off in Arizona at 2:25 PM this Sunday on Fox. The final regular season game of the Cardinals’ season and it looks to be one that could spell disaster or triumph in the best or worst ways possible. The risk with playing all your starters after clinching all the major facets of importance is clear for those who know what this week usually means. One bad cut or one missed block could spell doom going into the postseason. Knocking on wood and this game staying clean the Cardinals should be able to take care of their business and finally get the monkey off their backs and sweep Seattle for the first time since 2009.
Seattle – 29 Arizona – 33