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Cardinals DeskThe TapeGame center →

Cardinals go scoreless after a first-quarter field goal and fall 17-3 in Seattle

Arizona finished 4-for-13 on third down and sacked three times for 18 yards, and Seattle's 14-point second quarter settled the game.

The TapeCardinalsL 3–17atSEAHAWKS
By Cardinals Desk, Pigskin NightlyNov 8, 9:40 PM ET3 min read

The deciding stretch

The Cardinals scored 3 points in the first quarter and none in the next three. Seattle scored 14 in the second quarter, and the game was over at the half, 14-3.

The longest Arizona drive of the day ran 10 plays and 89 yards and ended in a field goal. That was the only scoring drive of the afternoon. The Cardinals went 0-for-2 in the red zone, and Seattle went 2-for-2.

The Seahawks scored at 0:15 of the second quarter on a 7-yard touchdown pass that was upheld on review. That play moved the Cardinals' win probability by 6 percentage points in the wrong direction. The final was Cardinals 3, Seahawks 17, a 14-point margin against a pregame line of SEA -8.5.

The swing

The game turned on first downs and third downs. Seattle collected 21 first downs to Arizona's 13. The Seahawks converted 7 of 13 third downs, and the Cardinals converted 4 of 13.

Arizona had three three-and-outs in nine drives. Seattle had two in nine. The Seahawks turned their nine drives into three scoring drives, two of them touchdowns. The Cardinals had one scoring drive and no touchdown drives.

The ground game never gave the offense an easy down. Tyler Allgeier carried 17 times for 46 yards, 2.7 per carry, with a long of 17. As a team the Cardinals ran for 50 yards at 2.8 per attempt. Seattle ran for 121 at 3.8, and nine of its 21 first downs came on the ground to Arizona's four.

Gardner Minshew II added 4 yards on his only carry. He was sacked three times for 18 yards, and he took an intentional grounding penalty at his own 27 in the first quarter that cost 10 yards and 5 points of win probability. With the quarterback's legs barely a factor, the Cardinals had no way to turn a dead pass play into a first down.

Who moved the needle

Expected points added, or EPA, puts a point value on each snap by comparing what the drive was worth before the play with what it was worth after. Positive means the offense gained ground. By that measure the Cardinals averaged minus 0.188 per play over 51 plays. Seattle averaged 0.075 over 58 plays. Arizona's success rate was 41 percent and Seattle's was 43, so the gap was in the size of the failures, not their number.

Minshew carried most of that weight. He completed 21 of 30 passes for 166 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions, a rating of 83.5. His 33 plays totaled minus 7.0 EPA, the worst mark on the team. Part of that is the sacks, and part is the 5.5 yards per attempt in his line. As a team, the Cardinals averaged 4.5 yards per pass play after sacks.

The receivers did what they could. Michael Wilson caught 6 of 7 targets for 60 yards and added 2.2 EPA, the best on the roster. Trey McBride caught 7 of 8 targets for 54 yards and added 2.0. Reggie Virgil's one catch went for 25 yards early in the first quarter, one of the longest plays of the day for the offense. Tyler Allgeier was the other negative: three receiving plays cost minus 2.9 EPA.

On defense, Andrew Wingard led with 12 tackles and Budda Baker had 11. Mack Wilson Sr. and Walter Nolen III each had one quarterback hit. The Cardinals recorded no sacks.

Where it leaves them

Arizona is 3-6 with a point differential of minus 77, having scored 178 and allowed 255. The Cardinals are 14th in the conference and last in the NFC West. San Francisco is 7-1, and Seattle and the Rams are both 5-4. The Cardinals are 0-3 at home and 3-3 on the road.

The next game is at home against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 10, Sunday, Nov. 15 at 4:05 PM ET on CBS. The line is LAR -7.5 with a total of 47.5. The Rams are 5-4, a game and a half behind San Francisco and three games ahead of Arizona in the standings.

How this was reported. Every number in this piece comes from the play-by-play, drive, injury and snap data Pigskin Nightly collects for every game. EPA (expected points added) is from the open nflverse model. We do not use anonymous sources or invent quotes. Read how we write; spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it in the open.