Seahawks versus Cardinals week 11: 3 quick impressions

The Seattle Seahawks moved to 7-3 with a week 11 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

The Seahawks moved back into first place in the NFC West, at least temporarily, with a victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday. Seattle now has a full game lead on the Cardinals and a half-game lead on the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football so Los Angeles could easily lose that game as the Bucs are pretty good.

Here are three quick thoughts from Seattle’s week 11 victory.

Russell Wilson played it safe and that was just what the Seahawks needed

Statistically, Russell Wilson‘s performance on Thursday isn’t going to change worlds. But Wilson was nearly perfectly efficient with just five incompletions in 28 attempts. He threw deep only a handful of times and was mostly content with throwing short. This was a great gameplan by Seattle.

Wilson had zero turnovers and rarely put the ball in a position where the Cardinals could have had any chance at an interception. And Wilson could have had another touchdown pass to go along with his 2 if D.K. Metcalf could have caught the fastball that Wilson threw to Metcalf in the end zone that bounced off Metcalf’s facemask.

D.J. Reed might need to start long-term for the Seahawks

Quinton Dunbar is likely out a long time. Tre Flowers is improving and played pretty well against the Cardinals. Shaquill Griffin is the best corner Seattle has but he’s been hurt. And D.J. Reed has been somewhat of a revelation. In fact, Reed has been so good, especially in run support, that he could argue he deserves to start opposite Griffin once Griffin is healthy enough to play again.

On Thursday, Reed led Seattle in tackles with 11 and had a pass defended. This is the second-straight week Reed has gone double-digits in tackles. The 49ers released Reed before the season as Reed was injured and the 49ers thought they could get him back. San Francisco’s loss was Seattle’s gain. And Reed is just 24 years old.

The Seahawks are ready to go on a run

Seattle is just 2-3 in its last five games but has played four good teams in that span and Seattle did so while being without several key players. A win on Thursday is huge. And now Seattle plays the Eagles, Giants, Jets and Washington Football Team in their next four games. Seattle should win all of them. The possibility of being 11-3 sounds pretty good right now.