The writing was on the wall for the Arizona Cardinals ahead of their Week 12 game against the Seattle Seahawks:

Take care of business in Seattle and move one step closer to an NFC West title, while the Seahawks’ postseason hopes are much lower.

Coming off the bye and armed with a dominant run game on top of a beefed-up defense against, the odds seemed to be in the Cardinals’ favor.

Sixty minutes later that was far from the case.

Unable to replicate much of anything offensively in recent weeks, Arizona slogged to a 16-6 loss on Sunday.

“Not our best game. Not enough done in all three phases. Give credit to Seattle. I thought they played extremely well,” head coach Jonathan Gannon told reporters after the game. “I just told the team there that we are going to learn a lot from this match. We have to go back to work tomorrow and learn and improve from this match. We have the energy and focus for that.”

That will happen if the run game was as ugly as it was against a defense that ranked 27th in the league in Week 12.

Averaging 3.5 yards per carry, Arizona’s ground game accounted for just 49 on 14 carries. The longest run of the afternoon was just 14 meters, courtesy of Emari Demercado.

Starter James Conner, who many expected to have a big game against the suspect run defense, had one of his worst games of the year on seven carries for eight yards. He caught five passes for 41 yards.

It wasn’t all a run game, though, as quarterback Kyler Murray struggled through the air.

While extending his completion streak to 20, the signal caller finished the day with 285 yards and one interception returned for a touchdown on 64.9% passing. He ran for another nine yards on two carries and was sacked five times.

“I thought the interception was a big play,” Gannon said. “I think we need to protect the quarterback better, it seemed like the pocket collapsed a little too much. That goes for all 11. That’s not just the O-line. That’s the quarterback, the backs, the receivers, the timing and the rhythm.”

Tight end Trey McBride led the charge with 12 catches for 133 yards.

But the most notable stat of the afternoon for Arizona? No touchdowns scored.

Wasted defensive effort

As expected, the offense has been a bright spot for the Cardinals more often than not in 2024.

But it was the defense – highlighted by the pass rush – that at least gave Arizona a chance on Sunday afternoon.

Arizona’s defense, which allowed five sacks and six QB hits, caused a lot of problems for Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith.

Garrett Williams also picked up the third interception of his NFL career in the fourth quarter.

But no matter how well the defense played on Sunday, it couldn’t continue its streak of not allowing a touchdown.

It didn’t help that the offense gave up points.

NFC West implications

The loss to the Seahawks makes things even more exciting at the top of the NFC West, especially with a rematch between the two in two weeks.

Despite sharing the same records, Seattle currently holds the division lead thanks to its head-to-head tie against Arizona.

The San Francisco 49ers are now 5-6 after losing to the Green Bay Packers. San Francisco now ranks last in the West.

Then you have the Los Angeles Rams, who play the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night.

A win over the Eagles would move the Rams into first place in the West thanks to their head-to-head tiebreaker against the Seahawks.

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