Cardinals at Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals played one of the most forgettable games of the season when they scored six points apiece in a tie in Week 7. Both teams will try to find the end zone early and often as the Seahawks try to build momentum heading into the playoffs by hosting the Cardinals on Saturday.
The tie at Arizona was one of several examples this season of Seattle's offense stalling in road games, and the club followed up a 38-10 loss at Green Bay in Week 14 with a 24-3 home triumph over Los Angeles last week that clinched the NFC West crown. Seattle, which is 7-0 at home and 2-4-1 on the road, can wrap up a first-round bye with a win this week. The Cardinals won the NFC West title last year and were a strong pick to at least go back to the playoffs this season but instead will play out the string in the last two weeks of the regular season before thinking about some changes in the offseason. "That was one of our trademarks, and it just hasn’t happened for us this year," Arizona coach Bruce Arians told reporters of his team's inability to close out games. "We’ll go back and we’ve got two to finish and hopefully we can close those out and go back and re-evaluate those exact same things because so many of them were close ballgames."
TV: 4:25 p.m. ET, FOX. LINE: Seahawks -8. O/U: 43
ABOUT THE CARDINALS (5-8-1): The bright spot in an otherwise down campaign for Arizona is running back David Johnson, who set an NFL record with 14 straight games of 100 or more yards from scrimmage to start the season and was named to his first Pro Bowl this week. Johnson, who leads the league in yards from scrimmage with 1,938 and has scored 17 touchdowns so far, piled up 113 rushing yards and caught eight passes for 58 yards in the first meeting with Seattle. "There is nobody better than he is," wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who will make his 10th Pro Bowl appearance, told reporters of Johnson. "He's playing at the highest level. He does it in the run game, the pass game, great pass protector as well. The guy can do it all. It's a real joy and a pleasure to be able to watch a guy do something like that and be his teammate."
ABOUT THE SEAHAWKS (9-4-1): Inconsistency plagued Seattle for most of the season, but the team is hoping to build some stability over the last two games. "The good part about it is that here we have a couple more games left, and we continue to work at it and see if we can really develop some momentum and some better play and already know that you're going," coach Pete Carroll told reporters. "I'm anxious to see how we do that." A good place to start is with quarterback Russell Wilson, who has nine TD passes and three interceptions in seven home games but seven scores and eight picks on the road - including a disastrous five-interception outing at Green Bay in Week 14.
EXTRA POINTS
1. Seattle P Jon Ryan (concussion) still is in the league's protocol and is questionable.
2. Cardinals WR J.J. Nelson has caught a TD pass in each of the last three games after totaling two in the first 10 contests.
3. Arizona has not won in Seattle since the 2012 campaign.