Seahawks week 4 breakdown against the Cardinals

Division games are always tough. There is so much exposure between the Seahawks and Cardinals that both teams have a full understanding of each others’ playing tendencies.

Despite the familiarity of the franchises, Kliff Kingsbury, the head coach for the Cardinals, is a new entity. This is both a blessing and a curse. There is very minimal film to watch thus far for the Seahawks to get a feel for their opponent. However, Kingsbury and the Cardinals have found little success thus far sitting at 0-2-1. Based on the limited exposure here are some cliff notes about the 2019 Cardinals.

Countering the Cardinals Offense

The Cardinals offensive line play has been very poor. The Lions, Ravens and Panthers defenses consistently broke through the line with a standard 3-4-man rush. Through three weeks, Kyler Murray has been sacked 16 times. That is second in the league in sacks behind only Marcus Mariota at 17. In contrast Russell Wilson has been sacked 8 times. This is a perfect opportunity for our talented defensive line to finally have a breakthrough game.

The Cardinals despite having a good, maybe even great running back in David Johnson, are a pass first team. They currently lead the NFL in pass attempts at 137. That is 23 more attempts than Patrick Mahomes, and 22 more than Russell Wilson. However, Murray is sitting at 24th in completion percentage and tied for 6th most in interceptions.

I expect the Seahawks will start the game coming in strong with a variation of linebacker and safety blitzes to keep Murray from getting comfortable. This will be our first test against the air raid offense this year. Fortunately, Shaquill Griffin is having the best three game stretch of his career per PFF with a coverage grade of 75.0.

The Cardinals rank 26th in the NFL in attempted runs with 56 attempts. Through three contests they are averaging 4.5 yards per carry, with just one touchdown. I would expect the Seahawks to stack the box with about half their runs coming off the center. Seattle’s defensive line ranks 4th in the league against the run allowing just 3.8 yards per carry. Considering the Cardinals lack of run game this won’t help us too substantially. But, by stopping the run game our defense can focus solely on the pass, helps with play calling.

The Cardinals really like to spread around the ball in the passing game. Through three contests, 5 receivers have over 10 targets. However, only 1 of those receivers has a catch rate exceeding 75%, David Johnson. Look for the Cardinals to utilize Johnson in a similar way the Saints used Alvin Kamara last week. I would not be surprised if one of the linebackers was tasked as an RB spy.