The Arizona Cardinals took their first loss by more than one score on Sunday, falling 44-22 to the Seattle Seahawks. While the Cardinals did manage to make some noise in the second half, there was no point at which they were alive in Sunday’s game. The good will earned from their complete team win over the Cowboys on Monday Night Football has quickly evaporated.
Yes, it was a short week against a tougher opponent than Dallas. Yes, a good chunk of Arizona’s secondary was missing. But a loss of this degree can only serve to demoralize, as Arizona was faced with an already-tough climb back into contention. That slim chance of a resurgence now seems like a distant fantasy.
Jacoby Brissett had his ugliest game of the season behind a poor performance by Arizona’s OL. Brissett put forward an uncharacteristically inaccurate 22-for-44 completion line. He still managed 258 yards and 2 touchdowns, but most of that production came in the second half — with the Cardinals well out comeback range. Kedon Slovis finished the final five minutes of the game.
Arizona may not have ever been favored in this contest — nor should they have been, facing a tough team on the road. But losing by that large of a sum is a result that strongly suggests this team is far from “close.”
The lone dominant performance? Star TE Trey McBride went for 127 yards and a touchdown on nine receptions. But McBride was just about the only aspect of this game worth significant praise.
Cardinals Crushed by Seahawks
The Seahawks presented a challenge to Arizona — how would the Cardinals handle their interior DL? Arizona did not match up well up front, and that was evident, to the most extreme degree possible. Some may point to Brissett as the issue, but the truth is he simply had no time.
Would Kyler Murray have avoided a sack or two? Perhaps, but Murray has been similarly terrorized by Leonard Williams and the rest of Seattle’s front seven in recent matchups.
Brissett was sacked five times for 52 yards, including two separate strip-sack touchdowns. Arizona continued its trend of extreme difficulty in the run game, as the Seahawks carved through the Cardinals’ OL play after play.
Arizona’s OL has presented one of the more disappointing regressions of the 2025 season. The Cardinals’ big men had begun to establish themselves as one of the better units in football. But without former OL coach Klayton Adams, this group has looked disjointed. Facing one of the better defensive fronts in the NFL, they simply had no answers.
For a team that has been so predicated on running the football and utilizing play-action, being consistently unable to protect one’s QB (particularly a less mobile and elusive one than Murray) is all but a death sentence. It’s not that there isn’t talent necessarily, but they’re struggling to execute, while the blocking schemes appear similarly flawed.
But it wasn’t just the trenches. The Cardinals flat-out couldn’t compete with a tough opponent on the road. The mental toughness Arizona displayed on Monday looks all but gone, as Jonathan Gannon falls to 0-6 against Seattle — a once-great rivalry that appears long-dead.
The Cardinals are clearly far from contention this season at 3-6, with more tough opponents waiting on the schedule. While the Seahawks might be a tough matchup for Gannon’s squad, these types of losses are hard to turn into positive motivation. Arizona looks miles away from making noise in the NFC West after Sunday’s domination.
