Three Seahawks that need to improve in week 4 versus Cardinals

The Seahawks are 2-1 entering week four of 2019 against the Cardinals. But for Seattle to win, these three players need to play better.

The Seahawks aren’t the worst 2-1 team ever, though I have seen some comments saying that. That is ridiculous. Seattle could easily be 3-0, though. One reason they are not is that some of their expectedly good players have not been so good. Not yet in 2019 anyway.

Seattle travels to Arizona this Sunday. The Cardinals and Seahawks have kind of an odd rivalry going right now. Seattle hasn’t lost in Arizona since 2012. But Arizona has beaten Seattle three of the last four times at CenturyLink. Week four is in Arizona, though, so hopefully Seattle keeps doing good things there.

The NFC West is very good. Both the Rams and 49ers are unbeaten at 3-0 and Seattle is 2-1. Arizona is still trying their way at 0-2-1 but does have an exciting young quarterback in Kyler Murray so Arizona could easily find a way to beat Seattle on Sunday. At this point, Seattle needs to play near their best as they can no longer simply show up and beat other teams like they seemingly could in 2013 and 2014.

Seattle has been making games even more difficult on themselves. Against the Saints in week three, Seattle had bad clock management, bad penalties, very little running game, a bad punt returned for a touchdown, and that was just by halftime. Seattle needs to be better to have a chance at the playoffs.

Moreover, Seattle needs these three players to be better than they have this season to have a good shot at beating the Cardinals on Sunday.

Chris Carson

I will start with maybe the most obvious player who needs to get back to being his old self: Chris Carson. Carson hasn’t been bad when running the ball, per se. The issue with Carson has been his fumbles. So far, Carson has fumbled three times in 2019 (really four) and that simply has to stop. Seattle is built to be a running team and that running game needs to be led by Carson.

But Carson keeps coughing up the ball, a lot of times on the Seahawks side of the field, and has put his team in terrible position. And while Carson’s offensive line has not been run blocking nearly as well as anyone anticipated, Carson still needs to make his own yards more often than he has. Carson currently averages 3.5 yards a carry on 45 rush attempts and has just one touchdown.

https://twitter.com/thecheckdown/status/1172217030398758912

The Cardinals are terrible at stopping the run so far. Seattle’s offensive line should have more success knocking the Cardinals defensive line off the ball on Sunday than they did against any of the teams Seattle faced in the first three weeks.

That said, while the Cardinals are 25th against the run in yards per rush, Arizona has also given up just one rushing touchdown this year. This means Carson will still need to make his own yards on Sunday and be a bully when Seattle needs to pick up a first down or touchdown on short-yardage situations. If he can’t, Seattle will lose.

Ziggy Ansah

Ansah has played one game for the Seahawks and already has been criticized by Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. In his Monday press conference, Carroll said

"(Ansah’s) effort was really consistent. His power was there too. He didn’t finesse much. He pretty much just power rushed the whole game. I think if he had to do it again, he’d mix it up a little bit"

So one game into his Seattle career, Ansah already has disappointed a bit. But no one should be judged on one game, especially a player who missed all of training camp and the preseason and the first two games of the 2019 regular season. Still, Ansah is only under contract for one year and he needs to be better going forward for himself and the Seahawks. If Ansah wants to make a huge paycheck next offseason, no matter with whom that may be, Ansah will need to be very good for the next 13 games with Seattle.

The Cardinals are not good at blocking. Murray has been sacked 16 times already, second-most in the league. Seattle got no sacks against the Saints in week three, even though Ansah played, and just one sack in week two against the Steelers, a game without Ansah.

Ansah needs to be productive against the Cardinals and use his athleticism to chase down Murray. If Murray, or any NFL quarterback, has time to throw, he will complete passes. Ansah needs to help shut the Cardinals down.

Michael Dickson

Dickson was an All Pro in his rookie season of 2018. He was everything that the Seahawks expected and the reason they drafted him in the fifth round. Dickson could pin teams back deep with punts that were far and with great hang time. Normally punters do not really slump, but the case could be that Dickson is doing so so far in 2019.

Last year, Dickson’s net average was 42.5 yards per punt. This ranked fifth in the league. In 2019, Dickson’s net is 39.2 yards per punt and this is 26th in the league. That isn’t good enough for someone drafted to be a defensive weapon. Dickson needs to help his team more.

The Saints ran a punt back for a touchdown in the first quarter of week three. A lot of the blame for being able to do so can be placed on Dickson. He punted the ball only 38 yards with little hang time. Deonte Harris had time to catch the ball, make a few moves and get to the end zone. The punt being short is one thing, but a short punt with good hang time should never be returned for a touchdown.

All season long Dickson has been inconsistent. He is averaging 46.6 yards per punt overall against his 48.2 yards per punt of 2019. Dickson has to be near-great every game for Seattle. Through three weeks he hasn’t been near-great and that needs to change starting in week four against the Cardinals.