Seahawks defense stifles Cardinals in 19-9 win

Finally, in the sixth game of the 2022 season, the Seattle Seahawks looked like the Pete Carroll Seahawks.

Well, save for the botched punt that made the score of Seattle’s 19-9 victory over Arizona at Lumen Field appear a little closer than the game looked on the field.

Otherwise, this was the formula Carroll has always preferred — a defense stingy against the run and aggressive with its pass rush, and an offense able to run and pass when it really needed to, even if not as prolifically as some earlier games, while not losing any turnovers.

“It’s a really satisfying win in terms of everybody playing together,” said the Seahawks’ head coach. “Everybody doing their part.”

Related Seahawks 19, Cardinals 9

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Most eye-opening was a defense that for the first time this season could be counted on for all 60 minutes to do its part by not allowing a touchdown on 11 drives from an Arizona offense led by former No. 1 overall draft choice Kyler Murray. It also got a season-high six sacks after notching only eight before Sunday and forced two turnovers — an interception by rookie Tariq Woolen and a forced fumble by rookie Coby Bryant recovered by Woolen.

And what was the difference from the first five weeks when the Seahawks had allowed 30.8 points per game, second most in the NFL, instead holding Arizona to 9 points and 315 yards, each season lows for a Seattle opponent?

It depends on who you talked to.

Safety and defensive co-captain Quandre Diggs pointed to attitude, saying that after the way the season started, the defense had finally had enough.

Diggs said players were “more pissed off” following the 39-32 defeat last weekend against New Orleans, which came on the heels of giving up 45 points to Detroit.

“We were able to come out with energy and passion,” he said. “It just felt different in pregame.”

Veteran defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson pointed to a decision by coaches to allow the defense to do a little less reading-and-reacting — which is a staple of the 3-4 front Seattle has gone to more this year under first-year coordinator Clint Hurtt — and more shooting off the line and attacking gaps.

“They just cut us loose,” Jefferson said. “And that’s less reading and more getting off. And I feel like the guys we’ve got, it benefits us. We can get off and cause havoc. I’m not really built for reading, I’m built to attack. So it was just fun game.”

Jefferson got one of the five sacks Seattle had from either a lineman or an outside linebacker as the Seahawks’ pass rush “came to life,” to use Carroll’s phrase.

Carroll confirmed the Seahawks tweaked a few things with their front, which he felt played a role in the defensive turnaround.

“I think Clint did a great job to take a step back and take a look at some things and fix some things up to suit our players and take advantage of what our guys can do,” Carroll said. “And it worked out. And I know those guys, they’ll feel it too. They’re going to — it’s going to make a difference as we move ahead.”

Jefferson said he felt it showed some faith by the coaches to trust that the players could handle being given a bit more freedom.

“There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with that,” Jefferson said of being allowed to attack more often off the line. “But I think we’ve got the mature guys who can handle that and know when to take their shots and you saw it today. We were having fun and flying around and knocking stuff back.”

Indeed, after Arizona gained 131 yards in the first quarter — due in part to a few missed tackles and allowing Murray to scamper 42 yards on one play — the Seahawks pretty much shut the Cardinals down. Arizona had just 14 yards on 11 plays in the second quarter as Seattle grabbed the lead for good, and the Seahawks held Cardinals running backs Eno Benjamin and Keaontay Murray to 44 yards on 18 carries for the game.

“The last four or five weeks, we’ve had trouble stopping the run, and that’s what the game plan was going into this game — stop the run so we can have some fun,” said outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu. “We did that, and guys were able to fly all over the field and get after Kyler Murray.”

Seattle did that most successfully on some key fourth downs — Arizona went for it on fourth down three times from the Seahawks’ 27 or closer, twice in the first half. All three times Seattle got the stop, plays that turned the game.

“What a huge change (in the game),” Carroll said. “They’re almost like turnovers almost. But to rise up and dominate on those plays. You know, we won those plays handedly.”

Seattle had just nine points at halftime as the Seahawks were stopped three times inside the Arizona 15.

Still, Seattle’s 9-3 halftime lead became 12-3 midway through the third quarter.

Then came disaster — a missed blocking assignment that led to punter Michael Dickson being hit and fumbling in the end zone, resulting in an Arizona touchdown with 54 seconds left in the third quarter.

With the outcome suddenly precarious, the offense turned in its best drive of the day as Seattle began the march by throwing it on six consecutive plays, with quarterback Geno Smith completing five for 64 yards to move to the 11, where rookie running back Kenneth Walker III ran it in for a touchdown that made it 19-9 with 13:24 left.

“I felt like when we needed it the most, our guys stepped up,” Smith said.

The run was part of an impressive starting debut for Walker, who took over for the injured Rashaad Penny and had 97 yards on 21 carries. The Seahawks had 136 rushing yards overall against an Arizona defense that came in ranked fifth in the NFL against the run, allowing just 97.4 per game.

The rest of the game was pretty much a party in Arizona’s backfield as the Seahawks had three sacks in the fourth quarter to salt the game away, as well as getting a turnover on Woolen’s pick, his fourth in four games.

“We always want to rush the passer here at Lumen, you know,” Carroll said. “We want to be able to take advantage of the crowd and the noise. It’s exactly what happened. That was coming together with the crowd and our guys really being able to recognize the benefits of that. That’s happened for years around here. There’s been sometimes when we haven’t seen it, and that’s because we needed to do our part. But today it was live and in color. Beautiful.”

Carroll had a similar feeling about the standings in the NFC West, which showed Seattle locked with the 49ers and Rams at 3-3 and Arizona at 2-4 at the end of the day.

“Everybody in the division is the same, so we’re starting all over again,” he said. “So you could look at it a lot of ways. I’m looking at it like we’re in first place and fired up (that) after what we’ve been through to be in that position. Feel fortunate.”