Stacy Rost: Seahawks showed three key improvements vs Cards

It wasn’t the prettiest win for the Seattle Seahawks, who put up just 17 points against a Cardinals defense that had been allowing a league-high 29 points per game. But considering the sheer number of starters sitting this game out with injury, consider Sunday’s quiet win for the Seahawks a must-have.

Instant Reaction | Seattle Seahawks win | Box Score

They got that win by improving in three key areas.

Zero turnovers

The Seahawks are a top-five team in takeaways (and should’ve had two more today, but that’s another story) but haven’t seen the benefits of it thanks to their minus-one turnover differential. Sam Darnold already has nine interceptions on the season, and they’ve lost fumbles from the running back room, too.

It wasn’t a thriller, but Drew Lock played a clean game Sunday, completing 19 of 28 for 175 yards and a touchdown. He entered the game nursing an elbow injury and spent some time in the blue medical tent after clutching at his side. Whether because of those injuries, or just by chance, Seattle didn’t target downfield as often. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had Lock’s longest completion of the day at 18 yards.

The emergence of a second target

Sunday marked the first time since Week 13 last year (regular season only) that a receiver not named Jaxon Smith-Njigba led the team in receiving yards. Then, it was AJ Barner with just 34 against the Vikings. This week it was rookie running back Jadarian Price, who was caught all four targets for 54 yards, including a 15-yard reception that converted third-and-8.

That’s huge. JSN has accounted for over 50% of Seattle’s receiving yards — this after finishing with a 36% target share in 2025. The hope was a newly paid Rashid Shaheed could break out as a second weapon on offense, but the Seahawks are still waiting for that to happen (and Shaheed was on the sidelines of this one after suffering a knee injury in Week 7).

Second-year pro Tory Horton had a big third-down conversion and could be part of that answer, too.

Red-zone stops

The Seahawks defense is still a top-seven scoring defense, and they helped that total by allowing just a field goal from the Cardinals. But they’re the worst defense in the red zone, allowing a touchdown on over 80% of opponent drives there entering the game.

The Cardinals were held without a touchdown on both trips to the red zone Sunday, though, thanks to a key pass breakup on fourth down by Nick Emmanwori late in the fourth quarter. Seattle also held Arizona to a field goal when it reached the end zone on its opening drive.

Notes

The Seahawks were much better on third down against Arizona. They converted 3 of 4 on attempts of third-and-4 or less, and 4 of 6 attempts of third-and-long (eight or more yards).

The defense has limited opposing passers to under 200 yards in all but one game this season (Caleb Williams, Week 8) and continued the trend in Week 9 with just 166 from Gardner Minshew.

JSN hit the 1,000-yard receiving mark in this game. He hit the same mark in Week 9 last year, also in a game against the Cardinals.

Quotable

“I don’t care about the score. I just want us to go let loose and go be us” — Mike Macdonald summed up his team’s performance after the game.

“Still up in the air” — that’s what Macdonald had to say about Drew Lock’s status. Seattle’s backup left the game briefly with an oblique injury after grabbing at his side. While he was able to re-enter the game, Macdonald said his status is still unclear. Jalen Milroe will be the healthiest of the three quarterbacks entering Week 10 (which was, to be fair, also the case heading into Sunday’s win).

Seattle Seahawks news and more

• Seattle Seahawks Injury Updates: Drew Lock ‘up in the air’ for next week
• Wyman: Three things stand out from Seahawks’ win vs Arizona
• Huard: Seattle Seahawks ‘back to being violent’ in Week 9 win

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