Wounded Birds Battle to Save Their Season

The Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals have gotten off to rocky starts this season. With the NFC West title looking like it’s quickly going to be out of reach, these teams face an early “must-win” game to avoid digging insurmountable holes. Seattle is a 3-point road favorite against an Arizona squad that has struggled offensively, with the total set at 37.5.

Seahawks vs Cardinals Game Center

WHY I THINK SEATTLE -3 IS THE PICK TO MAKE

Seattle has its flaws: the offensive line is still a major weak point, the defense is a far cry from the “Legion of Boom” days – and will only get weaker once the Earl Thomas III saga gets resolved – and they struggle to run the ball. But with all that said, they still have one of the league’s best competitors in quarterback Russell Wilson, so they always have a chance to win.

Plus, they have the luxury of facing an Arizona team that’s in even greater disarray, by way of the league’s worst offense through three games.

The Cardinals are dead last in passing yards and rushing yards and have 20 total points, half as many as the second-lowest scoring team in the NFL.

Seattle opened with tough road losses against the Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears before notching its first win last week over the Dallas Cowboys. Arizona was blown out in back-to-back games, then followed that by blowing a 14-point lead to Chicago in Week 3.

The Cardinals are not playing good football and the QB situation is a mess; the fateful words “next year” are already starting to creep in. Seattle isn’t the power it used to be, but the Seahawks fight every week and have the talent to make a run in the NFC. They know that they cannot fall to 1-3 if they have playoff aspirations, so I expect them to go to Arizona and take care of business.

BIRDS STRUGGLE TO TAKE FLIGHT

To say the Cardinals offense is struggling is a major understatement. They have 396 passing yards through three games, and average fewer than 60 rushing yards per game. It’s no surprise that they are also last in scoring, averaging 6.7 points per game.

Veteran QB Sam Bradford, brought in this offseason to serve as the bridge to first-round pick Josh Rosen, has been a disaster. He’s completed just 62.5 percent of his passes, with two touchdowns, four interceptions and three fumbles.

Running back David Johnson, a 2016 All-Pro who missed all of 2017 with a wrist injury, has also struggled in his comeback this year. He’s only had 34 carries in three games, amassing 116 yards, while adding 10 catches for 63 yards.

Bradford was replaced in the fourth quarter last week by Rosen, who was so-so in his NFL debut. It’s not known yet who will start against Seattle, but until Arizona can show signs of offensive life, even a total as low as 37.5 still makes me like the UNDER.

SEATTLE RUNNING GAME MAKING AN APPEARANCE?

Seattle’s Chris Carson had a heavy workload last Sunday, logging 32 carries for 102 yards and a touchdown. It marked the first time a Seahawks running back topped the 100-yard mark since their 2016 wild-card win over Detroit, when Thomas Rawls went off for 161 yards.

In 2017, Seattle’s leading rusher was … Russell Wilson. Having your QB be able to run is good, but having him lead your team in rushing yards is never a good sign. Seattle non-QBs carried the ball 314 times for 1,043 yards, an average of 3.2 yards per carry that would have ranked dead last in the NFL, along with being the fewest rushing attempts in the league (Wilson led the team with 95 carries last year as well).

Through the first three games this year, the Seahawks showed much more commitment to conventionally running the ball, and it paid off in Week 3. Establishing a consistent ground game doesn’t just help with ball control and a progressive offense, but it keeps the offense from being one-dimensional, keeps Russell Wilson from taking too many hits and allows him to do what he does best: throw the ball downfield.