The Seahawks needed the Cardinals to win, and the Cardinals played like the Seahawks

In losing to the Rams, the Cardinals embodied all of the issues that have plagued the Seahawks this season.

The best summation of the Arizona Cardinals’ loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday night came courtesy of NFL personality and podcast host Gregg Rosenthal.

This game meant a lot more to the Seattle Seahawks than the Cardinals, who are already out of the playoffs. While the ending itself was incredibly Seahawky, so was the Cardinals performance, and having to live precariously through Arizona was like watching every Seahawks problem unfold in one three-hour package.

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Red zone disasters

The Cardinals were dominant in the box score and should’ve comfortably won against the Rams. They were also 1-of-4 in the red zone and came away with 0 points twice. A failed 4th and 1 handoff to James Conner felt oddly familiar.

Seattle’s red zone offense is 20th in the NFL, and somehow that’s the best percentage in the NFC West this season. We’ve seen the Seahawks cost themselves repeatedly in the red zone for the entirety of the Geno Smith era, including in their own loss to the Rams.

If Smith isn’t the Seahawks starter in 2025, this will go down as the single costliest play of his Seahawks career, if not his NFL career.

Special teams issues

Arizona had a blocked extra point off of its only touchdown. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered given the flow of the game, but chasing a tying field goal vs. tying touchdown may or may not have impacted how the Cardinals would’ve approached the remainder of the game.

The Seahawks have had special teams woes all season, not the least of which includes Jason Myers having two extra points blocked (one of which was an important one against the Rams) and a blocked field goal for a touchdown in a loss against the New York Giants.

Too many penalties

The Cardinals committed nine accepted penalties for 62 yards, including multiple offensive line infractions pre- and post-snap.

The Seahawks have been penalty machines all season, especially at home. They’re 3rd in accepted flags and numero uno at home, which is completely unacceptable.

Losing the turnover battle and committing untimely mistakes

If you can forgive the first Kyler Murray interception as a 4th and 10 prayer/arm punt, the second pick was obviously the killer. Murray boinked one off of Trey McBride’s helmet and Ahkello Witherspoon made an outstanding diving catch. Game over, thanks for playing.

As nobly as the Cardinals defense played, they forced no turnovers of their own, no sacks (a problem for the Seahawks in a few losses this year), and dropped multiple interceptions.

The Seahawks are -7 in turnover differential on the season, which ranks 26th in the NFL. All of the teams below them have lost at least 11 games. You can point to Geno Smith’s 15 interceptions (and, oddly enough, 0 lost fumbles) all you want, but the Seahawks’ have only forced 16 takeaways on defense and special teams, which is currently the fewest in franchise history. Fumble luck has been bad (14 forced, only 4 recovered) but they’ve been a middling team at getting interceptions.

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I did not even include the Cardinals offensive line allowing four sacks and six quarterback hits. The only thing Arizona did reasonably well was run the ball without being explosive, but even they passed at a preposterously high rate and it can’t be just because James Conner was out.

It is, in some respects, a minor miracle that the Seahawks are in a position to win 10 games with how much bad football they’ve played. But they’ve been prone to enough bad football and at incredibly inopportune times that they find themselves once again on the outside looking in.

Perhaps it’s only fitting that the biggest blow to their playoff hopes happened because a team the Seahawks needed to win ended up playing a little too much like them.