The Seattle Seahawks got their eighth consecutive win over the Arizona Cardinals. But as has happened all too often, it was far from easy. This time, the Seahawks nearly threw the game away.
Not to go all cross-genre on you, 12s, but I'm sure a fair number of you are Trekkies. Or Trekkers, if you prefer. Regardless, you all know the phrase "Destruct sequence one, code one, one-A," by heart. Too often during Seattle's Thursday Night Football matchup with Arizona, that seemed to be on the lips of several of the Seahawks biggest stars.
Happily, teammates like Uchenna Nwosu stepped in to avert the sequence. For the most part, even the players who made the game more difficult than it needed to be made major contributions toward the win. Well, most of them did. But we'll get to that. For the record, I think that two of those self-destruct sequences weren't deserved, anyway. So let's dive in, 12s.
Seattle Seahawks overcome self-destruction to pull off the win
Now, I know I'm not the only person who doesn't feel like fully celebrating the Seahawks' win over the Cardinals. The Big Cat himself had some constructive criticism for his team, and rightly so. The defense allowed just 123 yards through three quarters plus, then surrendered 130 in the final 9:33 of the game.
That's not exactly a recipe for winning football. Especially not with the new Cardiac Kids, the Buccaneers, coming to town for Week 5.
What's even worse is that the game shouldn't have even been that close in the fourth quarter. Time and again, a key member of the Seahawks started that self-destruct sequence. Coby Bryant has been exceptional so far this season. Unfortunately, he started the self-destruction after making a great play to intercept Kyler Murray.
Actually, the blame for this should be shared by Tyrice Knight, who collided with Bryant at the end of his 15-yard return. The ball popped loose, and Arizona recovered, eventually making a 33-yard field goal. To my eyes, Bryant was down, but them's the breaks.
Kenneth Walker II hit the sequence again in the second quarter. With the ball at Arizona's 28-yard line, K9 picked up three yards on second and six. With the Seahawks at the Cardinals' 25 and third down and three yards to go, Seattle was in great shape to at least tack on three more points to their narrow 7-3 lead.
But Walker was called for taunting after throwing the football at Kei'Trei Clark after the play. No, Walker shouldn't have reacted. But that's the key that the referees missed. Walker was responding to the fact that Clark tugged on his leg well after he was down and the whistle had been blown.
That could just as easily have been called unsportsmanlike conduct on Clark. Instead, the ball was pushed back 15 yards, and the Seahawks had to punt the ball away after a loss on the next play.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba didn't escape the nightmare either. Driving to extend a 17-6 lead in the fourth quarter, Sam Dranold drove his Seahawks from their own 34-yard line all the way in for a Zach Charbonett touchdown run. Well, it would have been except that JSN was called for holding on the play.
Let me clarify that Smith-Njigba picked up two first downs on that drive, and that Walker had a 20-yard run as well. So it's not as if they screwed up and did nothing right. And for what it's worth, I agree with JSN's assessment of that call. It was absolutely - well, it was questionable, let's put it that way.
At least JSN and K9 had good games overall. The same can't be said for Riq Woolen. Yes, I know we've been dogging him lately, but not as much as he's been dogging himself. And no, I don't mean he's got some dog in him. He had another awful game, committing two pass interference penalties so blatant that even these refs saw them. He has inexplicably become one of the worst cornerbacks in the league.
Despite all the miscues and the defensive collapse, the Seahawks pulled out the win. They'll have to play at a much higher level to beat the Buccaneers in Week 5.