Big opportunity: Seahawks can stay on track for division title by grounding Cardinals

Bobby Wagner is a middle linebacker. He confronts everything head-on.

That includes the biggest test he and his Seahawks have had this season: Facing the 6-2, NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals at CenturyLink Field on Sunday night.

“We understand that they understand that they’ve got to take us off the top to beat us,” Seattle’s All-Pro said about Arizona’s attempt to end the two-year reign of the Seahawks’ reign as division champions.

“It’s not going to be an easy task coming into our home,” Wagner said of the raucous venue in which Seattle is 9-0 in primetime games under coach Pete Carroll. “So we are going to make sure we don’t let them do that.”

Both teams are coming off byes. During it and all this week, Carroll has talked about how large this chance is for his team, which started this uneven quest for a third straight Super Bowl appearance 0-2 and 2-4 and is now 4-4.

“It is,” he said, “a big opportunity.”

This is how big: Should the Seahawks improve to a league-best 23-4 in November and December since 2012 plus 5-1 against Arizona the last four seasons, Seattle could conceivably be tied for first place after next week. Arizona goes home to play still-unbeaten Cincinnati next weekend on the same day the Seahawks are hosting a 3-5 San Francisco team they just clobbered 20-3 last month.

But that’s getting waaaaay ahead of ourselves – and of Seattle’s immediate task.

It’s the Seahawks’ biggest game since February’s Super Bowl against Tom Brady and New England.

The Cardinals’ 35-year-old Carson Palmer is playing better than he ever has, even when he was winning the Heisman Trophy in 2002 at USC for Carroll. So says … Carroll.

Palmer has five games this season with at least 300 yards passing, two games with at least 370. He has thrown for 20 touchdowns against just six interceptions. His passer rating is an NFC-best 110.2; only Tom Brady and Andy Dalton have better ratings.

Arizona is second in the league scoring at 32.9 points per game, and third with 417.2 yards of offense per game. The Cardinals defense is third overall and fourth against what Seattle wants to do foremost: the run. Part of that is because foes have trailed Arizona for so much of games they’ve had to pass instead of run.

That’s played right into the hands of the Cardinals and their blitz-from-everywhere defense. Literally, right into their hands; Arizona has an NFL-high 13 interceptions in eight games, 10 more than Seattle’s famed “Legion of Boom.”

“We attack, in every situation,” Palmer said. “On offense. On defense.”

Still the Cardinals realize their only win over Seattle the last four years came at CenturyLink Field in December 2013. That is Palmer’s only other time quarterbacking the Cardinals in Seattle.

“I mean, they’re the defending champions, and for us to become champions we have to beat them. I think we’re all in that same mindset,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said. “People ask if it’s a rivalry, and I would say no. We haven’t won enough for it to be a rivalry.

“We feel like we’ve gotten better. And they’re the measuring stick because they’re our division champs and our conference champs.”

This time last season, Arizona was 8-1 and on its way to the top seed in the NFC playoffs. Then it learned Palmer was done for 2014 because of knee injury.

Drew Stanton, Ryan Lindley and even Logan Thomas happened next for Arizona. The Cardinals went 3-5 to finish the regular season, including 0-2 against the Seahawks while getting outscored 54-9 by them within a month’s time. Bye-bye, top seed and even the division title. Seattle seized that by ending the regular season with six consecutive victories.

Arians remembered this week Arizona had at least 10 players on injured reserve by the time they got to Seattle last Nov. 23.

Not now.

Plus, Palmer has a running game this year. Last season, lead back Andre Ellington managed just 24 yards on 10 carries in Seattle’s 19-3 home win over Arizona Nov. 23. By the rematch in Glendale the following month, he was out injured. The Cardinals had zero running threat with which to keep the Seahawks’ defense honest in Seattle’s 35-6 domination in the desert. That gave Seattle a second consecutive NFC West title.

Now, Seattle can’t focus solely on Palmer, revitalized receiver Larry Fitzgerald (55 catches, seven for touchdowns) or partner John Brown. Former Titans 2,000-yard rusher Chris Johnson has arrived from Tennessee in as shrewd a free-agent signing during training camp as the league’s had in years.

He’s been stampeding behind a remade offensive line that includes former 49ers and Idaho stalwart guard Mike Iupati. Johnson’s 676 yards rushing is third in the NFL behind Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson and Atlanta’s Devonta Johnson.

Chris Johnson has almost twice the rushing yards this season as the Seahawks’ Marshawn Lynch.

When he gained 109 yards on 30 carries in Arizona’s most recent game Nov. 1 at Cleveland, Johnson became the first Cardinal since former Seahawks running backs coach Stump Mitchell in 1985 to have four 100-yard rushing games in a season. Johnson’s back-to-back 100-yard games are the first for Arizona since Edgerrin James, another one-time Seahawk, did that in 2006.

Not bad for a 30-year old released by the Jets, shot in the shoulder in March and not signed until Arizona called in August offering a one-year deal loaded with incentives.

“That’s the biggest difference,” Wagner said of these Cardinals compared to last seaosn. “They have the running game to complement the passing game. They’ve got a lot of weapons outside, but they do a good job of balancing the runs and faking it and going deep.”

Seahawks defensive coordinator Kris Richard thinks this new running game Arians had vowed to improve all offseason is what sets Arizona’s offense apart from any in football.

“They want to be physical and they want to control the line of scrimmage. They test your discipline,” Richard said. “They’re a patient offense. They’re dedicated to the run and they have good backs that can go the distance. The explosive nature of their backs is really what makes their running game dominant…

“The fact that they use their backs out of the backfield in the passing game is what makes them pretty special.”

More of what makes Sunday a pretty special chance for the Seahawks. They can keep everything in the division right there for their taking, with seven games after this one still remaining in what’s already been something of an odyssey for the defending two-time conference champs.

“There have been a lot of teams that go 9-0, or whatever the case may be, and then they fall off towards the end,” Wagner said.

“We always have a way of sticking around and finding our way into the playoffs, and then making a splash.”

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Big opportunity: Seahawks can stay on track for division title by grounding Cardinals."