The Cardinals started their first drive on their own 1 and made it all the way to Seattle’s 10. In the fourth quarter they came back and reached the Seahawks’ 2. Arizona had three points to show for those drives and spent much of the time between them punting.
Seattle won 17-3 on Sunday, and the scoreboard reflects what it did near both goal lines. The Cardinals are 3-6 and have now lost 11 straight to the Seahawks. This time Arizona didn’t give away a single turnover. It still ran out of ways to make Seattle defend the full field.
The first drive deserved a better return than Chad Ryland’s 28-yard field goal. Arizona went 10 plays and 89 yards from its own goal line, and a 15-yard Seattle penalty after a Trey McBride catch helped carry the possession into scoring range.
Ryland made it 3-0 at 9:23 of the first quarter, but the drive stopped short of forcing Seattle to defend a fourth down near the goal line.
Arizona punted on its next four drives. A one-play possession closed the first half, and two more punts followed the break. In that stretch the Cardinals moved the ball 30 yards on one possession; they didn’t get nearly that far on the others. A field goal on the first drive feels perfectly reasonable until it’s the only score an offense can find.
The punting run was not simply a matter of bad luck. Arizona finished with 198 yards, converted 4 of 13 third downs and averaged 2.8 yards on 18 rushing attempts. Gardner Minshew went 21 for 30, and Seattle’s three sacks held Arizona to 148 net passing yards.
Tyler Allgeier carried 17 times for 46 yards, giving Arizona volume on the ground without the kind of consistent gains that make third down less demanding.
Seattle deserves much of the credit. Michael Wilson had 60 yards on six receptions and McBride added 54 on seven. Those catches gave Arizona something to work with, but the offense too often had to ask for another short completion before it could reach kicking range. The Seahawks kept getting a chance to end the drive on third down, and usually took it.
The Seahawks handled their own red-zone chances with far greater precision. Their first touchdown came after an 11-play, 58-yard drive, with AJ Barner finishing a direct-snap play from the 1-yard line at 14:23 of the second quarter. Seattle then traveled 81 yards in seven plays and scored again with 15 seconds left in the half, Drew Lock finding Barner for 7 yards.
