Can the Arizona Cardinals Repeat 2013’s Seattle Win?

Looking at the 2013 Week 16 game with fresh eyes shows signs of being similar to 2015.

In 2013 the Seattle Seahawks hadn’t lost at home in nearly two seasons, and a visit by the Arizona Cardinals appeared to be no different for the neon green birds as the Cardinals came in with very slim playoff hopes, needing to win out and get a lot of help after a few bumps along the way in Bruce Arians first season as head coach of the team.

The Seahawks, so dominate at home with their “12’s” had made Century Link Field a place to be reckoned with for every team that journeyed to the Northwest. But the next team up was one who would end their streak.

The Cardinals, to put it bluntly, played like absolute garbage most of the game, Carson Palmer had four interceptions to go with one touchdown (which we’ll get to in a second) and didn’t even throw for 200 yards in the entire game.

Looking at the Cardinals drives for the day:

• Interception
• Punt
• Interception
• Punt
• Field Goal
• Interception
• HALF TIME
• Punt
• Punt
• Punt
• Field Goal
• Interception
• Field Goal
• Touchdown w/ Two-Point
• Kneel down

That’s bad, really bad, but if you see similarities to some recent games, like two weeks ago versus the Browns, a turnover filled, sloppy mess that the Cardinals escaped with a win because the team they were playing made just as many mistakes, if not more, that doomed them. The Cardinals may not have “won” the game as much as Cleveland, or Seattle in 2013 “lost” the game. But that’s the NFL and that’s how it goes sometimes.

Watching the 2013 game, the last time the Cardinals played well against the Seahawks in Seattle, it’s easy to see how the team could triumph.

The team had a net of 307 yards on the day with 139 on the ground, while not dramatically high, the team limited the Seahawks to 192 total yards and only 103 on the ground. The defense got to Russell Wilson four times on the day, sometime that has been an issue for Seattle this season after trading Max Unger in the offseason for the sometimes-used Jimmy Graham.

Parallels are strong in the way the Cardinals played in 2013 and how they are struggling now. Previous to the Cleveland game, when the Cardinals were in the negative on turnovers (Pittsburgh and St. Louis) they came out on the short end of the stick.

The Cardinals are 1-1 under Bruce Arians coming out of the bye, winning against Houston in 2013 and losing to Peyton Manning and the Broncos in 2014.

The onus will be on the visiting team to actually “win” this game rather than allow the other team to “lose”.

If the Cardinals want this division, and they want a top seed in the NFC, which is coming into focus now that Green Bay lost again and are now tied with the Cardinals but hold the tie-breaker, for the moment, for the second seed and the bye.

The team must do everything it came to win-out and not only clinch the division, but show the rest of the conference the road to 50 goes through the AZ.