No Oasis for Seahawks: Cardinals Ready to Make It a Fight in Desert

Every fan does it. When their team’s schedule is released, they immediately pour over it, looking for the assumed “easy” wins. Most rational fans would have pointed to the Seattle Seahawks, who are the defending Super Bowl champions, winning their Week 2 matchup in the desert with the lowly Arizona Cardinals.

Now, after one week of data on each team, this trip to the desert will not be one of luxury, laying poolside sipping prickly pear margaritas for Seattle. The Cardinals look feisty. They look hungry. Rookie head coach Mike LaFleur just took down one of the AFC’s assumed top teams in the Chargers on the road. Arizona racked up nearly 400 yards and held the Bolts to just 268 in the 12-point upset win.

At the very least, they will no longer have the element of surprise on the Seahawks. They cannot be a diamondback rattlesnake laying in the grass, sneaking up on its prey from Seattle. That trap was sprung at SoFi Stadium against the Chargers.

If you simply looked at the top skill position players on offense, you would think the Cardinals are a Super Bowl contender. Trey McBride has a strong argument for being the best tight end in the NFL. He essentially won the “Triple Crown” among tight ends, leading the group in receptions, yards, and touchdowns in 2025. Few players made fantasy football owners happier last year than McBride.

Then there’s the legacy that is Marvin Harrison Jr. Sure, the former fourth overall pick is yet to hit his stride, but the talent is undeniable. Plus, one of his best games last season came against this very Seattle defense, catching six passes for 66 yards and a key score.

The new Lamborghini in the garage is running back Jeremiyah Love, whom Arizona selected at No. 3 overall this past spring. He scored a touchdown in his opening game of his career and will likely only get better by week, grabbing a bigger piece of the pie netting more touches as a runner and pass catcher.

Few teams have the talent to match Arizona’s trio of tight end, top receiver, and main running back. The Chargers learned that the hard way. For all of quarterback Jacoby Brissett’s flaws, you can never say he backs down from a challenge. He is the posterchild of a “gunslinger,” for better or worse. If there is a window, he will try and fire a tight spiral through it, risks be damned. Last season, Arizona ranked seventh in passing yards. They will air it out.

And yet, there’s still an air of mystery to how LaFleur’s offense operates with only one game as a sample size, requiring Leonard Williams and others to balance what they know personnel wise for Arizona with the coach’s previous ties to the Los Angeles Rams as an offensive coordinator.

“We only have one game tape to go off of. A lot of it is we’re going off of who we already played against in Arizona,” Williams explained. “We’re looking at certain guys like [Trey] McBride, some of their playmakers. We’re also looking at LaFleur’s offensive scheme and things like that. We’re watching tape of both. We’re watching tape on last year’s Cardinals and also last years Rams. We’re trying to diagnose and put it all together.”

One thing is for sure: the Chargers defense is not the “Dark Side” in Seattle. Only three teams allowed less than Seattle’s 4.1 yards per play against New England in Week 1. An argument can be made that the Cardinals’ offense poses more problems for Mike Macdonald than Drake Maye at the Patriots did.

So, why was Arizona’s preseason over/under for wins this year at a stiff 3.5 wins? They are already a quarter of the way to hitting the over. Look no further than the secondary. ESPN ranked Arizona’s corners as the second-to-worst group in the NFL. Their safeties didn’t fare much better at 26th. Last season they ranked 26th in passing touchdowns allowed and 25th in opponent passer rating.

However, this doesn’t mean their defense is Charmin soft everywhere. Walter Nolen is a bona fide stud on their defensive line. Dante Stills got four pressures and a sack on the Chargers while he bounced all over the line. Plus, their defense knows they are facing a backup quarterback, albeit a very capable one in Drew Lock replacing Sam Darnold, and they have plenty of multiplicity with returning defensive coordinator Nick Rallis calling the shots.

“They played great football on Sunday. Effected the ball, effected the quarterback, played great situational football,” Macdonald said of Rallis’ Cardinals. “They don’t run the same defense every day or every game, even from game-to-game within the division. You have to be ready for the full gambit of fronts and coverages and pressures that they can dial up, which they do a good job of that.”

Also, Seahawks fans need no reminder of the “house of horrors” State Farm Stadium in Glendale has been for the Seahawks. They will fight against some bad mojo most likely.

This isn’t to say the Seahawks should be shaking in their boots. Seattle is a 4.5-point favorite according to the books and has dominated in the win-loss column over the years in Glendale, including winning in Week 4 last year. However, ESPN’s analytics “matchup predictor” gives the Cardinals a 53.7% chance to win. The Cardinals are confident. They earned it by taking down a talented Chargers team and not having to face Darnold improves their odds.

Was that a mirage? Or are these Cardinals one of the league’s biggest surprises? Part of that story will be written Sunday against the defending champs, who will face a more challenging Week 2 matchup than anticipated.