NFL
Week 4: Arizona Cardinals vs Seattle Seahawks Recap
The Seattle Seahawks picked up their first road win of the 2018 season with what seemed like a fluky game against NFC West Division rivals, the Arizona Cardinals. It all came down to a 52-yard field goal attempt from Sebastian Janikowski to give Seattle the valuable win. Janikowski, 40, came in the clutch and nailed the kick with time expiring, putting them at 2-2 for the year.
The game-winning score came after Cardinals kicker Phil Dawson missed a 45-yarder with just under two minutes left. After the missed kick, Russell Wilson led a drive down the field just in time to get into the legendary kicker’s field goal range. The rest is history.
Even though the Seahawks won, they lost one of their most important players to what seemed like a pretty serious injury. In the fourth quarter, Cardinals rookie quarterback Josh Rosen threw a touchdown pass to sophomore receiver Chad Williams. While Earl Thomas was in pursuit of Chad, he went down with a terrible leg injury. It required Thomas to get carted off the field with an air cast around his left leg.
Thomas then flipped off his own bench while being carted off. This was his reaction to the disappointment of the injury sustained, along with his contract complications through the offseason, and not getting paid past this year. It was probably the most important takeaway from the game, as players are beginning to hold out in order to receive improved contract in case of a season-ending or career-altering injury like Earl Thomas suffered.
Seahawks Offense
It wasn’t too stellar of a game for QB Russell Wilson, who ended up with just 172 yards passing and 0 touchdowns. However, he remained consistent and threw the ball accurately when he needed to. Russ finished with 0 turnovers, along with a 73% completion percentage on 19 for 26 passing.
However, the main attributor to Seattle’s success on Sunday is a name that was even unfamiliar to most Seattle fans before the game. But not anymore. In comes Mike Davis, the fourth-round running back from 2015 out of South Carolina. Since Chris Carson was nursing an injury and incapable of playing, Pete Carroll decided to put his trust into Davis. And boy, did it pay off.
Davis ran for 101 yards on 21 attempts, to go along with two touchdowns. He also had a 17-yard scamper with 1:30 left in the fourth, to get Seattle to mid-field. This run by Davis put them in a great position to ultimately get Janikowski on the field for the win. This was one of the most crucial plays of the game and proved that Davis has big-play ability along with a knack for finding open holes in pressure situations.
It wasn’t the prettiest of games from the Seattle offense. But… they imposed their will on Arizona through continuously pounding the rock and making short-medium completions consistently throughout the game.
Arizona Cardinals’ Improvement
The Arizona offense wasn’t completely dreadful for the first time this season, thanks to rookie QB Josh Rosen. He only finished with 180 yards and a touchdown on just under a 60% completion rating. This was his first start, however. Plus, to be honest, he already looked better than Bradford had in the first three games of the season.
Rosen provided a much-needed spark to the struggling Arizona offense. He also ended up getting star RB David Johnson more integrated within the game-plan as a result. Johnson totaled 112 yards and a touchdown in the matchup and was heavily involved from start to finish. This is definitely a good sign for the Cardinals, who desperately needed to find an offensive flow so they could get their franchise RB the rock more often.
Other Takeaways
The defenses played pretty averagely, with only one turnover between each team in the entire game. Both the Seahawks and Cardinals need to pick it up on D. Especially if they want to pick up wins against tougher teams with higher powered offenses.
The loss of Earl Thomas is a huge blow to that Seattle defense. This was probably the official end of what fans know as the Legion of Boom. Earl was the last remaining member left of that championship secondary Seattle had a few years ago. Now, it’s over. Seattle must replace their All-Pro safety for the rest of the season in an already struggling defense in comparison to preceding years.
This game was a little weird and very subtle at times. However, it got wild at the end and was finished off by a 52-yard boot from the father time of kickers himself, Sebastian Janikowski. Seattle took a huge hit to their D with the Thomas injury. And Arizona actually found some hope in hindsight even though they lost the game by 3.
This weekend…
The 2-2 Seahawks will now look to take on the seemingly unstoppable Los Angeles Rams team at home on Sunday afternoon.
The Arizona Cardinals will hit the road to try and pick up their first win against Kyle Shanahan’s San Francisco 49ers.
Photo Credit: Keith Allison via Flickr
Follow TSJ101Sports on Twitter: @T101Sports and @T101SportsNFL
Subscribe to get the latest news from TSJ at the TSJ 101 Sports TV YouTube channel!
Play And Win Weekly at ThriveFantasy!
