Cardinals bring league-leading rush attack back to the Seahawks

The Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks come into Thursday Night Football with polar opposite momentum. Arizona has won three of their last four games, while Seattle has lost three of their last four.

As we mentioned earlier this week, this will be the first rematch of the season for the Seahawks. Since they faced off in Week 8, the Cardinals have continued to run away with their league-leading rush attack.

At 168.9 yards per game, Arizona has the strongest running game in the NFL, to go with their seventh-best points per game total. The combination of Kenyon Drake and Kyler Murray has surpassed that of Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson and.....Lamar Jackson.

In fact, of late, Seattle has been the only team to slow the Cardinals down on the ground. When the two faced off, the Seahawks held Arizona to 159 rushing yards, one of the only games below their average this season. In all the games surrounding their series with Seattle, the Cardinals have pounded the ball to great effect, including a lofty 261 yards against the Dallas Cowboys.

It’s a perfect matchup in which we’ll see how Damon Harrison fills in for injured Bryan Mone in stopping the run game up the middle. Snacks saw 19 snaps last week in his 2020 debut and should be involved at least as much on Thursday Night.

Another quality matchup will be Jordyn Brooks containing the run game not of Drake, as much as Kyler Murray.

Brooks missed a couple games early on, and has really shown lately that having fast linebackers is a wonderful thing. He flashed against Arizona the first time, and it seems his confidence has only grown in attempting tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

It’s unlikely that the Cardinals would completely abandon the run game as did the Buffalo Bills - Murray doesn’t sit still much. But the Seahawks have the chops to at least take away their biggest weapon, forcing them to do everyone’s favorite thing against Seattle.

But getting beat one way is a far cry better than getting beat two ways, and that might be enough to give Russell Wilson what he needs to win.