Cardinals' 3 Keys to Victory vs Seahawks

It’s only week four, and yet the Arizona Cardinals are staring at a must-win game on Thursday Night Football against the Seattle Seahawks. Just the fourth game of the year, and it has a chance to decide the 2025 season.

The Cardinals must execute a near perfect game plan to get a critical win and stay afloat in the NFC West division race. Even on a short week, that’s where the team finds itself.

To get that crucial win, I have outlined the keys to this victory. If the Cardinals can execute on these three tasks, a win is within reach.

Next-man-up backfield

James Conner is done for the year and that means an already struggling Cardinals running is now forced to try and make something happen without their top player. It only complicated things more for a team that planned to base their offensive identity through its ground attack. But that cannot be an excuse, moving forward; not this early in the season.

The Seahawks run defense is no slouch, and a short week makes this more difficult than before for the Cardinals to run the ball. Nonetheless, that’s what they must do. The team must embrace a next-man-up philosophy for the remainder of the year, starting tonight. Trey Benson has to lead the charge with featured appearances from everyone else.

Disrupt Seattle’s offense

The Seahawks free agent signing of Sam Darnold is looking pretty solid so far. His box score won’t blow many away, but it’s been his connection with Jaxon Smith-Njigba that has really turned this offense up. As long as those two are in sync and the guys Around them continue to make plays, Seattle offense is more than good enough to win games by itself.

To this point, the Cardinals defense has done just enough to hold down opposing offenses, and they will need to be on their game tonight. Smith-Njigba will carve them up if the secondary isn’t ready. Slowing him down is a must, and from there, Arizona needs to find a way to contain the big play.

Make the critical plays

Perhaps the biggest reason the Cardinals dropped last week‘s game against the 49ers was their inability to step up during the games biggest moments. No more of that. With the state of this roster, Arizona could be facing multiple game deciding plays for the rest of this season. They must be prepared.

That needs to start tonight, and the Seahawks are a perfect opponent to prove that they can do that. After all, Arizona’s most frustrating losses a season ago came against Seattle when they couldn’t close games and make the critical players. It’s time to flip the script.

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