This game really worries me.

AZ just finds ways to win. With Okung and Unger possibly both out & the struggles of leaving Britt alone outside, the AZ blitz could do us in. RW was sacked 7 times at home last month when we played them. He is at serious risk again this week. Unless Bevell, Cable and Russ can find a way to find the hot WR on the blitz I don't see us scoring offensively. AZ has proven they can shut down Lynch so I think he will be a non factor.

I think we need scoring from our D and ST to win this one.

Expect Wilson to get sacked at least 4x

Unger has been out for weeks and Okung hasn't been playing lights out either.

I saw some decent pockets for Russ last week without either of them in there.

I agree. Too many people are just focusing on the fact that they are down to their third or fourth string QB and making conclusions off of that only. Alarm bells are ringing in my ears. I know we are playing great ball right now, but how is an 11-3 football team 7+ point underdogs at home in probably the game of the century for that franchise? Look, remember the Ravens 2001? Remember their crappy QB? Guy named Dilfer....horrible QB, probably not much better than Lindley and they won the SB. Why? Because he probably threw the ball 15 times a game and was told that the defense would do the rest. This is a game where our defense cannot just carry us. Our offense has to step up and play the best ball of the season. I'm just not sure our crappy offensive line can do it. Honestly, I think our chances are only 50/50 we win this game. Anyone who has watched a lot of NFL football should know that there is something not right about going on the road against an 11-3 team and expect to win.

News alert. Our defense is better than theirs. They're the ones that should be losing sleep.

That QB is not respected because he hasn't done squat in the NFL and in fact was out of a job until Palmer went out.

He is making his start vs. the best and quickest defense in the NFL. I see picks, more than one.

AZ has caught teams at good times and in fact was aided by terrible calls vs. K.C.

We are going to squash them.

kmedic":8cfdcomx said:

Look, remember the Ravens 2001? Remember their crappy QB? Guy named Dilfer....horrible QB, probably not much better than Lindley and they won the SB.

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Bolded is completely absurd. Dilfer basically amounted to a standard backup QB who wasn't great but belonged in the league. Lindley was literally unemployed in the NFL two weeks ago. Dilfer was a pretty good comparison for the Drew Stanton situation, but not for this Lindley thing. There's a reason the Cards dumped this guy originally.

kmedic":2swb5a55 said:

I agree. Too many people are just focusing on the fact that they are down to their third or fourth string QB and making conclusions off of that only. Alarm bells are ringing in my ears. I know we are playing great ball right now, but how is an 11-3 football team 7+ point underdogs at home in probably the game of the century for that franchise? Look, remember the Ravens 2001? Remember their crappy QB? Guy named Dilfer....horrible QB, probably not much better than Lindley and they won the SB. Why? Because he probably threw the ball 15 times a game and was told that the defense would do the rest. This is a game where our defense cannot just carry us. Our offense has to step up and play the best ball of the season. I'm just not sure our crappy offensive line can do it. Honestly, I think our chances are only 50/50 we win this game. Anyone who has watched a lot of NFL football should know that there is something not right about going on the road against an 11-3 team and expect to win.

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I think the game of the century for that franchise probably was the SB. I could be wrong.

The 11-3 team is an underdog because they're not only down to their 3rd/4th string QB, they're also without their top RB. And Dilfer is WORLDS better than Lindley. This team was 9-1, and they lost to us and the Falcons in back to back games (and it should be noted that Atlanta has absolutely no defense). Yes, the Cardinals beat the Chiefs and Rams, but they escaped both of those games by one score each, and neither of those teams is as well-rounded as we are. Our offense is better than both KC and St. Louis, and our D is better than both of those squads, as well. KC played those Cards to a 3-point game when Stanton was there. We get Lindley. That matters. Also, those close wins over KC and the Rams required a +2 turnover differential for the Cards in each game. Do you know how many times in the Russell Wilson era that the Seahawks have had a -2 turnover differential in a game? Twice - against the Rams on the road in 2012 and against Tampa last year. Even with those 7 sacks the Cards got against us in Seattle, we never turned the ball over. If we do that again, we win.

Yeah, the Cardinals are an 11-3 team. But we're a 10-4 team. And over the last 4 games, we're better. Over the last 8 games, we're better. And Sunday night, we'll be better.

This Cardinal team is basically just a lesser version of us at almost every position. They have a very good defense, we have an elite defense. We have a barely mediocre offense, they have one of the worst in the league.

Outside of the fact that we're having to play this in Pink Taco Stadium, there isn't a single advantage that they bring to this matchup, and they absolutely should not win it.

Now, to be fair: I worry about this game too, to the extent that weird crap can happen like what happened in our one undeserved loss this season (St. Louis), and that if it did happen to us here it would be completely devastating. But I'm worried in the same way that I sweat that my opponent may hit a longshot miracle card on the river in a huge pot at poker; most of the time we'll be very happy with the result, but the times that we're unhappy we'll be extremely unhappy.

I understand the OP, I really do, but worrying about sacks, turnovers and Lynch being stopped completely ignores that in our last matchup, over 400 yards of offense and 6 scoring opportunities presented themselves to the Hawks.

Of course, in the opening minutes of the game I will be feeling exactly like the OP.

Scottemojo":pekw145d said:

I understand the OP, I really do, but worrying about sacks, turnovers and Lynch being stopped completely ignores that in our last matchup, over 400 yards of offense and 6 scoring opportunities presented themselves to the Hawks.

Of course, in the opening minutes of the game I will be feeling exactly like the OP.

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Yeah I get it.....that was at home though, loud crowd, turf field, held to mostly field goals and we gave up a ton of sacks. AZ HFA is equal to ours.....look at their record for the past few years. On the road we are average at best. We have a tendency to committ penalties at the worst time when we play on the road too. At home we are nearly unstoppable. Plus we all know how hard it is to sweep a division rival in a season. We split against them last year. We lost to an inferior Rams team on the road when we had a ton of offensive stats. I think it is naive to think we will win this easily. Again, our D and/or ST will have to score to win this IMO.

Chawks1":27byj5x1 said:

Scottemojo":27byj5x1 said:

I understand the OP, I really do, but worrying about sacks, turnovers and Lynch being stopped completely ignores that in our last matchup, over 400 yards of offense and 6 scoring opportunities presented themselves to the Hawks.

Of course, in the opening minutes of the game I will be feeling exactly like the OP.

Click to expand...

Yeah I get it.....that was at home though, loud crowd, turf field, held to mostly field goals and we gave up a ton of sacks. AZ HFA is equal to ours.....look at their record for the past few years. On the road we are average at best. We have a tendency to committ penalties at the worst time when we play on the road too. At home we are nearly unstoppable. Plus we all know how hard it is to sweep a division rival in a season. We split against them last year. We lost to an inferior Rams team on the road when we had a ton of offensive stats. I think it is naive to think we will win this easily. Again, our D and/or ST will have to score to win this IMO.

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2014: 7-0 (just like the Hawks were in 2013... time to pay them back for ruining our perfect home record)
2013: 6-2 (including a loss to us)
2012: 4-4
2011: 6-2 (but this includes 4 OT wins)
2010: 4-4

Let's look at ours:

2014: 6-1
2013: 7-1
2012: 8-0
2011: 4-4
2010: 5-3 (not counting the postseason win)

Yeah, that's not equal.

Chawks1":2mkvgtcp said:

Scottemojo":2mkvgtcp said:

I understand the OP, I really do, but worrying about sacks, turnovers and Lynch being stopped completely ignores that in our last matchup, over 400 yards of offense and 6 scoring opportunities presented themselves to the Hawks.

Of course, in the opening minutes of the game I will be feeling exactly like the OP.

Click to expand...

Yeah I get it.....that was at home though, loud crowd, turf field, held to mostly field goals and we gave up a ton of sacks. AZ HFA is equal to ours.....look at their record for the past few years. On the road we are average at best. We have a tendency to committ penalties at the worst time when we play on the road too. At home we are nearly unstoppable. Plus we all know how hard it is to sweep a division rival in a season. We split against them last year. We lost to an inferior Rams team on the road when we had a ton of offensive stats. I think it is naive to think we will win this easily. Again, our D and/or ST will have to score to win this IMO.

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OP,
In what aspect of football is Arizona better enough than us that will actually require us to score with defense and special teams to win?

Their style of defense always gives Russell Wilson trouble. That defense is the blue print for beating Russell. As far as their offense goes, it might play to their advantage because dink and dunk offenses always give our defense trouble no matter who the QB is.

strohmin":1tkv6kmv said:

Their style of defense always gives Russell Wilson trouble. That defense is the blue print for beating Russell. As far as their offense goes, it might play to their advantage because dink and dunk offenses always give our defense trouble no matter who the QB is.

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Examples?

Chawks1":2wy69oqk said:

AZ just finds ways to win. With Okung and Unger possibly both out & the struggles of leaving Britt alone outside, the AZ blitz could do us in. RW was sacked 7 times at home last month when we played them. He is at serious risk again this week. Unless Bevell, Cable and Russ can find a way to find the hot WR on the blitz I don't see us scoring offensively. AZ has proven they can shut down Lynch so I think he will be a non factor.

I think we need scoring from our D and ST to win this one.

Click to expand...

Any given Sunday. Arizona is a good team. Yes they did sack RW 7 times last time....but they still lost by 16. They are playing their 3rd and 4th string QBs in this game. Advantage - Seahawks.

It's understandable, every game should worry everyone, this is the NFL...where anything and everything can happen.

But we got this, we will win this game. We are the HAWKS!!

Being a Phoenix resident, I have watched parts or all of every Cards game.

Yeah this is the NFL, and yeah stuff happens, but there is no way AZ should be 11-3.

They literally have won 5-6 games they had no business winning. Fluke calls/bounces/etc have quite literally off-set any bad luck they have had injury wise. They have caught EVERY BREAK possible in EVERY close game.

Because of their good defense, they are a team to be respected, especially at home, but the AZ team we are facing isnt as good as SF, much less us. 11-3 is a joke.

Say whatever you want, this game AND the next worry me.
A loss to the Cards dramatically changes our playoff scenario.

I think we will pull off a win, but the vary possibility and thought of a loss, worries me.
In fact it turns my stomach.

MidwestHawker":3gjvdb0a said:

strohmin":3gjvdb0a said:

Their style of defense always gives Russell Wilson trouble. That defense is the blue print for beating Russell. As far as their offense goes, it might play to their advantage because dink and dunk offenses always give our defense trouble no matter who the QB is.

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Examples?

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Every offense we've lost to this year.

Of course, that was before our defense came together last month.