Home Streak Ends In Loss To Cards

Earl Thomas and the Seattle Seahawks knew the crown in the NFL’s toughest division wouldn’t come easily—and after a late loss to Arizona on Sunday, it’ll now come down to the final week of the season.

The Cardinals connected on a touchdown with just over two minutes remaining to defeat Seattle 17-10 in the NFC West divisional showdown. The loss halted Seattle’s home winning streak at 14 games and the Seahawks will now have to top division foe St. Louis next week to win the NFC West outright.

Depite a tough loss, ETIII expressed optimism after the game, saying that the Hawks would move on to the next challenge, rather than dwelling on their third loss of the season.

“We can’t harp on it,” Earl said. “We have another great opportunity in front of us. It won’t be difficult at all (to put this game behind us). Because everything you want is still right in front of your face. Why waste your energy on this game when it’s over, it’s behind you? Even if we had won, you’ve got to let it go.”

Led by Earl, who finished with 10 tackles, Seattle’s Legion of Boom limited the Cards to 136 yards passing and intercepted Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer four times, giving them a league-leading 26 picks on the year.

As a whole the Seattle defense allowed just 307 total yards and one touchdown in the loss. Though that lone touchdown proved to be the difference in the contest, No. 29 was pleased with another job well done by the Seattle defense — which still ranks as the NFL’s best in passing and total yards allowed.

“A lot of good stuff happened for the defense,” ET recalled. “We don’t have anything to hang our heads about. I think we did a great job of creating turnovers and being disruptive like we always do. … We made them turn the ball over four times, so that’s a great job by us.”

Seattle’s pick party started on Arizona’s first drive, when safety Kam Chancellor swiped a Palmer pass attempt in the end zone. Cornerback Richard Sherman added an interception late in the scoreless first frame.

A 27-yard field goal by Steven Hauschka gave Seattle the game’s first lead early in the second. However, the Cardinals answered with a field goal of their own to send the game into the halftime break tied at 3-3.

The third quarter was slow paced and neither squad moved into scoring position until late in the quarter, when Arizona marched inside the Seattle 30. ET III made a key tackle, halting running back Andre Ellington on third down to limit the Cardinals to a field goal attempt. But Jay Feely connected from 46 yards out to give Arizona its first lead of the game.

Arizona appeared to be building some momentum when they recovered a Seahawks fumble on the ensuing kickoff. However, Sherman quickly nullified that swing by intercepting Palmer for a second time.

Unfortunately, the Hawks’ offense wasn’t able to capitalize, as it responded with its fourth straight three-and-out. Seattle netted just 192 yards of total offense and converted only two third downs in 13 tries in the game.

Though the Seattle offense has had its difficulties over the last two weeks, Earl said Monday in an appearance on the Bob & Groz Show on ESPN 710 that he remains confident in quarterback Russell Wilson and the Hawks attack.

“I have total trust in our offense, especially when you have a great quarterback in Russell Wilson,” ET said. “My whole mentality is just to control what I can control and that’s just being the best teammate and also controlling everything in my power on the backend with us being the LOB in the secondary. We just stick together and control what we can control on both sides of the ball. We’ll be fine.”

Arizona added another field goal after that three-and-out to pull ahead 9-3 early in the fourth quarter putting some added pressure on the Seattle offense. But Wilson and Co. responded well and showed why Earl is so quick to profess his faith in them.

Set up at their own 39 thanks to a great kick return by Doug Baldwin, Seattle marched 61 yards in just six plays and re-took the lead when Wilson linked up with tight end Zach Miller on an 11-yard touchdown strike. That pass and the subsequent extra point gave the Seahawks a 10-9 advantage midway through the fourth. With less than eight minutes remaining on the clock, it was on the Hawks’ defense to seal the NFC West crown.

But a lack of balance in time of possession that had been building for much of the game — Arizona held the ball for more than 37 minutes in the contest — came to a head in the fourth when the Seattle defensive unit had little left in the tank.

From their own 20-yard line, the Cardinals trudged their way downfield on a drive of more than five minutes. Seattle gave every bit it had left, but it wasn’t quite enough. The Seahawks also gave an assist to the Cards throughout the afternoon with nine penalties for 102 yards—including one on the final drive.

On the tenth play of the Arizona drive, Palmer launched a pass down the sideline to receiver Michael Floyd. In one-on-one coverage, Seattle corner Byron Maxwell nearly knocked the ball away, but Floyd somehow brought the ball back in as the two fell to the ground in the end zone for a touchdown. Despite it ending with Floyd catching the go-ahead score, ET lauded the effort by Maxwell on the play.

“I think Max did a great job of making him make a spectacular catch,” Earl said. “That’s what we talk about. If we’re going to get beat, they’re going to have to be on ESPN about it.”

For that touchdown, Seattle had no answer, and Arizona escaped CenturyLink Field with a 17-10 victory, handing the Seahawks their first home loss of the season. Earl said afterward that Seattle did all it could to win, it just didn’t pan out.

“It’s just one of those things where you feel like you did everything in your power and it just didn’t work out for us,” ET said. “There’s a lot of great situations that we can learn from, but we win together and we lose together.”

NEXT UP

The loss to Arizona was yet another a testament to the strength of the NFC West, which boasts the best combined record in the league at 40-20. The Seahawks will move forward to the next challenge this week as they get set to host another divisional foe, the Rams, this Sunday.

“I think it is (the best division in football),” Earl said of the NFC West. “It’s just credit to the coaching staffs on every team in our division and also the competition level of the players who are being brought into our division. The biggest thing is that we know each other. Just like we knew the Cardinals, we know the Rams very well and they know us, vice versa. It’s going to be a very physical game once again.”

After starting 11-1, Seattle has dropped two of its last three games, both to NFC West opponents. Despite the recent slump, ETIII pointed to the strong leadership in the Emerald City as a source of confidence going forward.

“The important thing to really focus on is not jumping ship or panicking,” he said. “This not the time to look to point fingers. This is really the time to show what we’re all about. We’re sticking in this together. We have great leaders. When we have a performance like that it doesn’t define us. We treat winning and losing the same. Either one, you just got to keep going.”

Seattle will close the regular season at home against St. Louis. A win will give Seattle the NFC West crown. The Seahawks can also clinch the division with a San Francisco loss to Arizona. Both games kick off at 4:25 p.m. EST and can be seen on FOX.