Seahawks will face the devil – I mean Bruce Arians – Sunday

It’s no secret that the Seahawks have had more than their share of trouble when Bruce Arians pays a visit. I’m shocked he isn’t showing up on Halloween.

For those 12s that have a strict view of religion, I am not implying that NFL coach Bruce Arians is actually Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Old Scratch, or most simply, the Devil. However, I stand by the statement that no other coach more richly deserves the title of The Adversary when it comes to the Seahawks.

From 2013 to 2017, the Cardinals bedeviled the Seahawks terribly. While Seattle won the series 5-4-1 in that span, their record at home was astoundingly bad. All four of the Hawks losses in those five years came at CenturyLink Field. Arizona’s head coach in those contests was, of course, Bruce Arians. And guess who’s coming to visit this Sunday?

The flip side of Pete Carroll’s record against Arians is just as evident. The Hawks beat the Cards in Arizona four times and tied the other game. On the road, Carroll is 4-0-1 against Arians, but just 1-4 at home. This wouldn’t be nearly so irritating if it weren’t for two very important addendums to this divisional devilment.

Over that five-year span, the Hawks were clearly the superior team. The Seahawks overall record from 2013-2017 is 54-25-1. The Cardinals sport a less robust 49-30-1 record. The difference is just five games, one per season, but Seattle won the division three times to Arizona’s lone division title in 2015. The Cards crashed and burned after that season and lost eight games in each of the nest two years. Arians got his walking papers, but he still managed to torment the Hawks right to the end.

That’s the second part of this that troubles me. Arians infamously said that CenturyLink was home for the Cardinals. And unbelievably, he made it stick. This is a guy who was coaching his last game, just trying to avoid a losing season. The Seahawks were still fighting for a playoff spot. although the Falcons would win their own game that day to bump the Hawks out of the playoff picture, losing at home to a coach on his way out the door was, was…well, it smacked of deviltry.

And just days after Halloween, here Arians comes again with his foul tricks and schemes. Okay, he’s just a football coach with a mediocre team. To be honest, that’s what scares me. His Cardinals always seemed to play their best against the Hawks when they weren’t that good overall. And that dovetails nicely with his current team in Tampa Bay.

The Buccaneers are just 2-5 coming into Sunday’s game. Nothing to worry about, right? Here’s the thing. Their two wins are against two pretty good teams, the Panthers and the Rams. Their defense shut down Carolina, while their offense blew up on Los Angeles. As usual, you can’t know how an Arians team will play. You can be sure of this; when he comes to call, he brings devilment.