Seahawks vs. Cardinals: Sunday Night Football Preview and Predictions

By Timothy An

Sunday, Oct. 25 at 8:20 P.M. EST NBC

Spread: Seahawks, -3.5

Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks have had a tremendous start to the season, sitting at 5-0, and atop the NFC. The one caveat to their success is that every single game they have been in has been extremely close. All five games they’ve played this season have ended in a one-score victory. However, this is why they are so good. Led by veteran quarterback Russell Wilson and head coach Pete Carroll, you can never count the Seahawks out of a game, and we will see if they can continue their success Sunday night against their division rivals, the Arizona Cardinals.

Seahawks Offense

DK Metcalf (14) has 496 receiving yards heading into Week 7. (Abbie Parr/Getty Images)

The Seahawks high-flying offense is ranked number one in points per game, scoring a whopping 33.8 points per game. Quarterback Russell Wilson leads this offense, throwing for 1,502 passing yards, 19 touchdowns (1st in the NFL), and just 3 interceptions so far into the season. Wilson is off to a tremendous start to the year, not only leading the league in passing touchdowns but also leading the league in passer rating with a rating of 129.8. This passing attack features two dangerous, speedy wide receivers in Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf, both of whom seem to know exactly where to go in order to get open when Wilson escapes from the pocket. This duo, combined with veteran tight end Greg Olsen, makes this passing attack lethal. The only issue the Seahawks have been having on offense is getting the running attack going. Chris Carson has had a slow start to the season, only rushing for 289 yards in five games. This ordinarily is not a worry because of Wilson's ability to pick up the slack, but if the Seahawks find their running attack against the Cardinals on Sunday night, the Cardinals team is in for a long night.

Seahawks Defense

While the Seahawks offense is dominating the league, it is their defense that has been getting dominated by the everyone that they have played. You would expect a defense that features stars like Bobby Wagner, Jamal Adams, KJ Wright, Bruce Irvin, and Shaquill Griffin to be a dominant force, but this Seahawks defense has given up the most yards per game this season by far with 471.2. This is an absolutely ridiculous number to allow, especially given the teams 5-0 record. The Seahawks run defense has been pretty stout, ranking 7th in the league for least rushing yards allowed per game, but their pass defense has been atrocious. They lead the league in passing yards given up at 370.4 passing yards per game, which is 40 yards more than the next team behind them. If the Seahawks want to keep themselves in the game, they don’t have to completely shut down Kyler Murray, they just cannot be as bad as they have been through the first six weeks of the season.

Arizona Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals enter Week 7 coming off two lopsided victories by over 20 points against the New York Jets and the Dallas Cowboys. The Cardinals are 4-2 but haven’t really faced any difficult competition as of yet. Their two losses have come at the hands of the 2-3 Detroit Lions and the 3-3 Carolina Panthers. This Sunday night against the 5-0 Seattle Seahawks will be the first real challenge the Cardinals will face after a pretty easy schedule to start the season.

Cardinals Offense

The Cardinals offense has had a fantastic start to the season, ranking 5th in the entire league in yards per game with 402.5 yards per game. Though the passing game has been average after a fast start, the Cardinals rushing attack, led by Kyler Murray and Kenyan Drake, currently ranks 4th in the NFL. Kenyan Drake has accumulated 478 rushing yards this season, ranking 4th amongst all players, along with 4 touchdowns. Kyler Murray has rushed for 370 rushing yards, ranking 11th in the league, along with 6 rushing touchdowns, tied for second best. This rushing attack is dynamic and has been the core of this offense. However, the Cardinals passing attack isn’t too bad either. New acquisition DeAndre Hopkins is the star of the wide receiver group, leading the league in both receptions and receiving yards with 47 receptions and 601 yards. The other two receivers are Christian Kirk, who had a tremendous performance last week with 86 receiving yards and two touchdowns, and Larry Fitzgerald, future Hall of Famer. This is a stacked offense, and we will see if they will be able to perform under the spotlight on Sunday Night Football against the Seattle Seahawks.

Cardinals Defense 

Budda Baker (32) had a sack, a forced fumble, and an interception in Week 6 against the Cowboys. (Photo by Arizona Cardinals)

The Cardinals defense has allowed the second-fewest points per game this season, allowing only 18.7 points per game. However, this isn’t really a testament to how good this defense is, but rather, to how easy their schedule has been. They have kept their past two opponents to ten points each, but they played the New York Jets and the Dak-less Dallas Cowboys. One issue the Cardinals will have to deal with is the loss of all-pro outside linebacker Chandler Jones. In the absence of their best pass rusher, the Cardinals may have a hard time putting pressure on Russell Wilson. The Cardinals have a lot of young stars throughout their defense in Haason Reddick, Budda Baker, and Isiah Simmons, but we will see if they can perform well enough to stop the best offense they’ve faced this season, led by arguably the MVP of the season thus far, Russell Wilson.

Prediction

We can expect Sunday night's game to be really intense as these two division rivals face off. I think it will be interesting to see the Arizona Cardinals finally play some real competition. I expect both these offenses to put up points in a high scoring affair, but eventually, the Seahawks coming out on top. I think the Cardinals will be able to contain Wilson for most of the game, but when it matters most, you can’t bet against Wilson and his ability to bring his team back.

SHAWN’S PREDICTION: Seahawks 28 - 27

AJ’S PREDICTION: Cardinals 38 - 35

CADE’S PREDICTION: Seahawks 42 - 35

JAKE’S PREDICTION: Seahawks 35 - 24

TIMOTHY’S PREDICTION: Seahawks 31 - 30

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