Seahawks defeat Cardinals in week four behind Chris Carson

The Seahawks offense didn’t produce a ton of points on Sunday but Chris Carson was good and the defense did enough to propel Seattle to victory.

Don’t look at the statistics for week four, 12s. It isn’t like the Seahawks didn’t do much offensively. They were OK. But the Cardinals did some things offensively too. Some of it was garbage time and some of it wasn’t. But Seattle won 27-10 in week four and that is good enough.

Let’s start with what we thought would be good. The Cardinals were bad against the run heading into week four and while Seattle didn’t really dominate with their run game, Chris Carson was pretty great. Carson ran for 104 yards on 22 carries. He also caught four passes for 41 yards. It is almost a travesty that he didn’t score a touchdown because he was a lot of Seattle’s offense in week four and should have gotten a score.

Carson had by far his best rushing day of the season and didn’t fumble. Both of those facts are reason for celebration.

The other thing we thought Seattle would do well is throw to their tight ends. Will Dissly was excellent on Sunday. He had 7 catches on 8 targets for 57 yards and a touchdown. Dissly continues to progress into one of the better tight ends in the NFL and showed why against the Cardinals.

The game never really seemed close. Sure, 12s could have thought to themselves, as I did, that if the Cardinals could do this or that in the second half maybe the game becomes closer. But Seattle’s defense was better against Kyler Murray of Arizona than a lot of other defenses could do. Seattle didn’t want to give up the big play and didn’t.

Murray finished the day 22 of 32 for 241 yards but he had no touchdowns and one pick. He was sacked four times for 35 yards. Murray had 27 yards rushing but over half of that came on one run.

Seattle defensive end Jadeveon Clowney set the tone early, basically changing the game, with an early interception of Murray and return for touchdown that put Seattle up 10-0. The game was never the same after that as far as points go.

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Clowney ended up with just one tackle but his presence was felt. Ziggy Ansah may have had a last play sack that seemed meaningless but overall his play was not. He had five tackles and was active. Rasheem Green was consistent with pressure and had a sack. The defensive line for Seattle was good.

But this game really belonged to ball control and Carson. Sure, Russell Wilson made his plays. He threw for 240 yards and touchdown. But the game came down to Carson, Dissly and the Seattle defensive line. The Seahawks were better than the Cardinals in week four and the 27-10 final proves that.