Sportsnaut
The Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals took the field on Thursday Night Football with 2-1 records, both looking to prove themselves on a national stage with a victory against an intradivisional opponent. What we saw tonight is that both teams will be a potential playoff threat this season.
Let’s dive into the winners and losers from the NFL game tonight on Thursday Night Football. Examining the best and worst performances from the Cardinals vs Seahawks game.
Let’s first put things into perspective for 38-year-old defensive lineman Calais Campbell. He was a second-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, the same class as Chris Long (retired after the 2018 season), Matt Forte (retired after the 2017 season), and Jamaal Charles (retired after the 2018 season). Meanwhile, Campbell is back where his NFL career began and playing at a level fairly close to 2014-16, when he made the Pro Bowl with the Cardinals.
Campbell now has two games this season with two-plus sacks. Adding some historical context to that, he last accomplished that feat in 2017. Sitting at four sacks on the season through four games, the future Hall of Famer has a chance to record his first season with eight-plus sacks since 2018. Other NFL teams pursued Campbell this offseason, but he chose to return to Arizona. If the Cardinals were to fall out of playoff contention by the start of November, though, it’s fair to wonder if teams might inquire about him.
While sacks can be a quarterback stat, this was a night the Cardinals’ offensive line will want to forget. From a run-blocking perspective, Trey Benson had one long run (12 yards), and the rest of his carries resulted in a 3.3 yards-per-carry average. Add on top of that the seven quarterback hits, six sacks, and five tackles for loss, and you have a rough performance from Arizona’s front. Now, through four games of this season, it’s evident how badly this team misses offensive line coach Klayton Adams, who is now the Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator.
First, we were critical of the Seahawks’ investment in Sam Darnold coming into the season. That was based on the situation he was entering—a quarterback prone to imploding when pressured and being put behind a woeful offensive line. What’s become clear is that the pass protection is sufficient, and Darnold has taken some of what he learned from the Minnesota Vikings with him to Seattle. Darnold’s numbers weren’t flashy on Thursday night, but he made some big plays, including the big throw on 3rd-and-6 with five minutes remaining when the Seahawks were on the brink of a collapse. He then delivered the game-winning drive, including another strike to JSN.
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