There is still work to do for the Seattle Seahawks to make the playoffs this season.
In the game they most needed to win to make those dreams happen, the Seahawks not only played like a playoff team, but one that could do a lot of damage once it got there.
The Seahawks used an opportunistic defense to grab control early, then made all the big plays when most needed the rest of the way to stave off the desperate Cardinals 30-18 at State Farm Stadium.
The Seahawks improved to 8-5 with the win, its fourth straight, while dropping Arizona — which 15 days ago was poised to take control of the NFC West — to 6-7.
The win also assured the Seahawks would stay at least a game ahead of the rest of the NFC West and improved their percentages to make the playoffs to roughly 70% via various analytic models. Those odds could have dropped to around 20% with a loss.
The Seahawks took control by picking off two Kyler Murray passes on two consecutive drives in the first quarter, which led to scoring 17 unanswered in the span of 4:25.
That turned a 7-0 Arizona lead into a 17-7 Seahawks advantage.
The Seahawks turned to a surprisingly productive rushing attack to keep Arizona at bay, with a 51-yard Zach Charbonnet TD run in the second quarter helping them take a 24-10 halftime lead.
Charbonnet, getting his third start of the season filling in for injured Kenneth Walker III, finished with a career-high 134 yards on 22 carries as the Seahawks finished with a season-high 176 on the ground. It was the most rushing yards for a Seahawks running back since Week 7 of the 2022 season (Walker with 167 at the Chargers).
Quarterback Geno Smith was quietly efficient — but most important, mistake-free — completing 24 of 30 passes for 233 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions and was never sacked.
The Cardinals tried gamely to make a game of it in the second half, cutting the lead to 27-18 late in the third quarter.
They had one last shot to make it a game when they drove to the Seattle 21 with just over eight minutes left. But the Seahawks got a third-down stop and Arizona’s Chad Ryland missed a field goal.
The Seahawks ran more than 5:20 off the clock to set up Jason Myers’ third field goal of the game and victory was assured.
The game ended with Arizona trying to add a garbage-time TD as the clock expired. Even that ended in futility as Seahawks safety Rayshawn Jenkins sacked Murray as the final seconds ticked off.
The Seahawks are 10-1-1 against Arizona since 2013 at State Farm Stadium.
The win was the Seahawks’ fourth in a row since a stretch of five losses in six games had they reeling and dealing with a bevy of questions about where this season was headed.
A soul-searching bye week followed and the Seahawks haven’t lost since, beating the 49ers on the road; then Arizona at home in a game when a Cardinals win could have put Arizona two games in front of Seattle; the Jets on the road last week; and beating the Cardinals again Sunday.
Arizona took the opening kickoff and moved 70 yards in six plays to score on a 41-yard pass from Murray to Michael Wilson, more points than the Cardinals had scored in the first game between the two teams two weeks ago — a 16-6 Seattle win.
It was a seemingly ominous beginning for the Seahawks.
Instead, the Seahawks responded with what was their best half of football of the season on both sides of the ball.
The Seahawks drove for a field goal following the Arizona TD, then came the two picks off Murray — by linebacker Ernest Jones IV and Coby Bryant.
Jones returned his pick to the Arizona 19 and Seattle needed just one play to cash in — a 19-yard pass from Smith to Jaxon Smith-Njigba to take a 10-7 with 3:35 left in the first quarter, which proved to be the last time the lead in the game would change.
Two plays later, Murray threw another pick to Bryant at the Arizona 46.
The Seahawks needed just five plays to cash in that one on a one-yard run by Charbonnet to make it 17-7 at the end of the first quarter.
Then, when Arizona closed to 17-10 and appeared to have the Seahawks in peril, facing a second-and-20 at their own 10, Seattle ripped off 90 yards in four plays.
The capper was Charbonnet’s 51-yard run, which came on a play when he found a big hole created by right guard Sataoa Laumea and right tackle Abe Lucas, who pulled from the right to the middle.
Laumea flattened Arizona’s Dante Stills, laying on him as Charbonnet burst into daylight — and a fitting image for a first half dominated in every way by the Seahawks.
The Seahawks outgained Arizona 272-156 in the first half with 121 coming on 14 rushes. That was more rushing yards than Seattle had gotten in all but two full games this season.
The tasks for the Seahawks don’t get easier with home games the next two Sundays against Green Bay and Minnesota, teams who are a combined 20-6.
But after Sunday, the Seahawks’ doubters are beginning to grow as quiet as State Farm Stadium was for most of the second half.
