The Setup
Cards were trying to fight their way out of a 0 - 2 -1 record. The 2 - 0 - 1 Seahawks were nursing their wounds in the aftermath of a 33 - 27 loss to the Saints
Lede
Seattle Takes Care of Cardinals 27 - 10
The Bottom Line:
The score didn't fully reflect the competitive edge enjoyed by the Seahawks. First quarter scoring was a little deceptive as an early Seattle 3 point lead expanded to 10 points off an interception return by Clowney of an errant Kyler Murray screen pass. When Clowney made the one-handed grab and took it to the house, there was an automatic "whoosh" that sucked most of the enthuisasm out of the State Farm Stadium crowd and that was all she wrote.
Just as we were beginning to trust our FG kicker (Gonzalez) - who had to work with a different holder to replace the injured Andy Lee - he whiffed on 2 attempts in a row. And It seemed as if every time Kyler Murray would get something going or our defense would hold 'em on 3rd down, the officials would throw flag after flag. Nothing seemed to go right. the Seattle widened its lead to 20 - 3 (at halftime, and split the 2H scoring 7 - 7 in the second half to preserve the 27 - 10 "W."
Statistically, the two teams were pretty close to one another - the difference being that early turnover and Russell Wilson's advantage at crunch time. Compared to Murray. a higher percentage of Wilson's successful plays (i.e. completions, longer runs etc.) occurred at key points in the game where they sustained drives or put points on the board.
Murray continued to show flashes of good things to come, but was unable to deliver on a consistent basis, with two many of his plays seeming to be designed to wind up 2 or 3 yards short of a TD or 1st down. Gotta hope that (sooner rather than later) the pump will be primed and Kyler will have a break-thru outing.
Defensively, the Cards had their moments, but too often, a Seattle ballcarrier would put a Cardinal tackler on roller skates or one of their TE's would mysteriously show up wide-open in the Cardinal secondary. In watching the game, I had the unsettling opinion that the Seattle players were bigger and more physical than our players and operated with a higher level of consistency technique-wise.
Scoring Summary:
Game Log
We've had trouble locating play-by-play logs worth posting here so please bear with us. When we find it, we'll post it here.
Last Word:
Question of the Week - Can the Cardinals dig their way out of their hole" Or are their problems "chronic" and deeply entrenched?
Gut feel - Cards are capable of digging their way out if they keep their heads down and plug away at fundamentals. But key sub-question is: "Are the Cardinal players willing and able to do so?"
