Arizona's Defense Smothers Seattle In 27-3 Win Over The Seahawks

NFL News - October 19th, 2009 - Written by John

The Arizona Cardinals jumped back on top of the NFC West and improved to 3-2 after their smothering victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. A strong defensive effort, combined with the resurgence of a dormant offense, helped them get their 27-3 win. Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner had a fantastic game and finished with 276 yards and 1 touchdown. Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald had a career high 13 receptions for 100 yards and 1 touchdown. Arizona's defense hounded Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck all game and finished with 5 sacks. Defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said that the fact that Seattle was playing with a depleted offensive line was no excuse on the play of Hasselbeck.

"At some point it seemed like he wasn't even looking at his receivers," Dockett said. "I'm going to make no excuses that they had backup offensive linemen. They got out there and they got whupped."

Arizona jumped out to an early first quarter lead on a 2 yard pass to Fitzgerald and a 2 yard touchdown run by Tim Hightower. They out gained Seattle in yardage in the opening quarter by 128-3 and Arizona had the ball for only 43 seconds in the period. The Cardinals would add to their lead in the opening of the second quarter on a 29 yard field goal from Neil Rackers to put them ahead 17-0. With 3:57 remaining until halftime, Olindo Mare would connect on a 28 yard field goal to give Seattle their only score of the game.

Arizona would extend their lead late in the third quarter on Warner's second touchdown pass of the game to Steve Breaston to give them a 24-3 lead. Rackers would add another field goal in the fourth quarter to give Arizona their 27-3 win.

Seattle (2-4) could not get anything going offensively against the Cardinals. They were held to just 14 yards rushing and only had 128 total yards in the game. Hasselbeck looked miserable as he threw for only 112 yards and had 1 interception and lost one fumble. Things only got worse for the Seahawks as they lost three-time Pro Bowl linebacker Lofa Tatupu for the remainder of the year when he got hurt attempting to tackle Fitzgerald in the second quarter.

The Seattle Seahawks will have the week off before traveling to play at Dallas in Week 8. Arizona will have to turn around and get focused once again as they travel to play the New York Giants, who got their first loss of the season against New Orleans on Sunday. They will need to bring the same type of defensive effort against the Giants that they displayed against Seattle. Fitzgerald said that Sunday's game against New York will be a good gauge on their season so far.

"Oh, that game is huge," Fitzgerald said. "It's really going to be an opportunity to see where we're at."

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