Seahawks must face Arizona’s house of horrors again

The Seahawks usually win when visiting the Cardinals home turf. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t practically been a deathtrap for the Hawks.

The Seahawks face the Cardinals tomorrow at State Farm Stadium. My first thought that it’s a real shame that Jake Plummer couldn’t play here. If you have to ask why, you make me sad. Something that truly makes me sad is the struggles Seattle has faced on this road trip. It isn’t the record that’s the problem. 6-2-1 under Pete Carroll is just fine – although that damnable tie still digs at me a bit. No, the issue is everything else that has happened in that stadium, regardless of who bought the naming rights.

The biggest issue has been the ridiculous spate of injuries there. The Cardinals had a big hand in the end of the Legion of Boom – or the changing of the guard, if you prefer. Richard Sherman was the first to go down in the November 9, 2017 game. Sherman tore his Achilles tendon as was lost for the season. The Seahawks awful luck continued when Kam Chancellor was injured his neck. At first, it was thought to be a stinger, but when his condition didn’t improve, Seattle placed him on injured reserve. Just like that, half of the LOB was gone for the season. Chancellor never returned to the field, as you know.

Last year, the State Farm injury bug bit hard again. Funny way to run an insurance company, if you ask me. Anyway, both Earl Thomas and Will Dissly were lost for the year the following season in Seattle’s visit to Arizona on September 30th. Dissly was the first man down after wrecking his knee in the first quarter. That was a tough blow, but nothing like what happened in the fourth. Despite his acrimonious holdout, Earl Thomas had been playing lights out for the Seahawks. That ended with a broken leg, And with it, the LOB ended as well.

There’s every chance that the Seahawks would have declined to extend Sherman or Thomas, that’s true. It’s just as valid to say the career-ending injury to Chancellor made the team gunshy about big contract extensions with big guarantees. At least they were leary of giving them to defensive backs. Yeah, I see you, Russ; and I see you, Bobby. Suffice to say, the venue has not been kind to the Seahawks fortunes.

So yes, I’d really like a win in this hell pit. I predicted a win at the start of the season, and haven’t seen anything to convince me otherwise over the past three games. But even more than that, could we please not literally decimate the team tomorrow? One win and zero major injuries. Yeah, that’d be great, football gods.