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# Rapid Reaction: Drew Lock, Jaxon Smith-Njigba Pull Off Hat Trick in Seahawks 31-7 Win vs. Cardinals
- URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/rapid-reaction-seattle-seahawks-jaxon-smith-njigba-drew-lock-arizona-cardinals-hat-trick/
- Published: 2026-09-20T23:30:50.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-08T05:55:15.000Z
- Author: Corbin Smith
- Tags: Analysis, Game Day, Seahawks, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Drew Lock, Emanuel Wilson

Turning a halftime tie into a laugher on the road, Drew Lock and Jaxon Smith-Njigba combined for three touchdown connections and A.J. Barner added a late score on a “Barn Yard” sneak as the Seattle Seahawks blew out the Arizona Cardinals 31-7 behind 24 unanswered points.

Playing a near-perfect game, Lock completed 19 out of 26 passes for 235 yards and three scores with no turnovers, while Emanuel Wilson bludgeoned Arizona’s defense in the second half to finish with 92 rushing yards to pace Seattle’s ground game. Leading the charge defensively, Julian Love intercepted Jacoby Brissett and Jarran Reed and Leonard Williams each recorded sacks as the visitors held the Cardinals to 151 total yards of offense on the afternoon.

Diving into a satisfying NFC West beatdown for Seattle, here are five takeaways from State Farm Stadium:

### 1\. Playing with growing confidence, Lock continues to play clean football and wisely lean on his best weapon.

Building off a steady outing in relief of Sam Darnold in his first start in two years, Lock could not have had a more perfect start on Sunday afternoon, gifted a busted coverage on the back end by Arizona’s defense just two plays into the opening drive. Baited by a double move from Smith-Njigba on the outside, safety Budda Baker took a couple steps upfield, allowing the superstar to rocket past him with no additional support in coverage, making for the easiest 82-yard touchdown imaginable to open the scoring. While the Seahawks didn’t score again in the first half, it wasn’t on the quarterback, who threw for 163 yards without any turnovers while completing nine out of 14 attempts, and he continued to sling the pigskin coming out of the locker room.

Once again relying on Smith-Njigba’s brilliance and reliability in clutch moments, Lock rifled a seven-yard touchdown to the star receiver on a third down slant to put Seattle back out in front 14-7 early in the third quarter. On the ensuing possession, he flashed his elite arm talent by throwing a fastball in between three converging defenders in coverage for a 17-yard connection to tight end Elijah Arroyo, helping set up a Jason Myers field goal to push the lead to 10 points. Putting a dagger in the red birds early in the fourth quarter, the quarterback found his favorite weapon once more to finish off the hat trick, throwing a rope over the outstretched arm of a dropping linebacker to Smith-Njigba for a 12-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone, finishing off the best game of his NFL career.

### 2\. Out of sync much of the afternoon, the run game started to find some traction pulling away in the second half.

Pitted against his former college backfield mate in Jeremiyah Love, Price’s second NFL game featured far more adversity than his debut. Arizona swarmed him in the backfield and at the line of scrimmage frequently, limiting him to 22 yards on nine carries for the half. The rookie also learned a valuable lesson while trying to push the pile on a second quarter run with multiple defenders draped on him, as linebacker Zaven Collins ended up stripping the football out of his hands and recovering the fumble near midfield, ending what had been a promising drive. To the rookie’s credit, he did come back with a chip on his shoulder, bowling over safety Andrew Winguard on an 11-yard run on his next carry, but he still finished with an ugly 2.4 yards per carry in the first half. Emanuel Wilson didn’t fare much better and got stuffed on third and fourth down runs late in the half to send Seattle’s offense to the sideline empty handed.

But in the second half, as the Seahawks started to rack up first downs and the passing game continued to churn out first downs, the Cardinals inevitably began to wear down and the run game started to turn what had been short gains into consistent five-plus yard bashes. Following up an electric 25-yard run by Price, Wilson’s size and power generated persistent yards after contact as the offense was able to eat clock once Seattle had extended the lead to three scores in the fourth quarter. After rushing for under three yards per carry before halftime, even with Price exiting in the fourth quarter with a chest injury, the visitors ended up rushing for over 100 yards in the second half behind Wilson’s excellent effort bruising through and running around Arizona’s defense.

### 3\. Minus a few hiccups early, Seattle's run defense stonewalls Jeremiyah Love and Arizona ground game.

Never satisfied, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald told FOX’s broadcasting crew that the team needed to clean some things up defending the run after Love found moderate success on a couple of wide zone runs in the first half, setting up Arizona’s lone touchdown drive. This was on the heels of still allowing under 3.6 yards per carry, but that’s the lofty standards that have been set by the “Dark Side” defense, and allowing any room off the edge simply wasn’t going to cut it. It’s safe to say whatever message was shared and adjustments were made worked and then some, as the Cardinals couldn’t get anything going on the ground after halftime.

In part due to the offense chewing up so much clock with long, drawn out drives and winning the time of possession battle by almost 15 minutes in the second half, the Cardinals recorded just four rushing yards in the entire second half. Love and Tyler Allgeier combined to run the ball twice in the final 30 minutes, as Mike LaFleur didn’t even get the chance to try to establish either player with the offense standing on the sideline and quickly giving the ball up with turnovers and punts on the few offensive opportunities they had. Regardless of who touched the football, the Seahawks swarmed like bees on a honey comb, flying to ball carriers and finishing tackles, preventing any yards after contact in an utterly dominant effort.

### 4\. Trey McBride got his as Cardinals main weapon, but Seahawks didn’t let him dominate as a one-man show.

For two quarters, the versatile, athletic McBride gave Seattle fits as he does to most teams on a weekly basis, at least in terms of volume. He went into halftime with seven receptions, including a three-yard touchdown against cornerback Josh Jobe on a key fourth down and goal conversion to tie the game up in the second quarter. With safety Nick Emmanwori on a pitch count in his season debut, Arizona made it a priority to force feed the talented tight end, but most of those receptions netted minimal yardage with just 33 yards and 4.7 yards per catch, hardly providing explosives for a passing game that couldn’t get untracked most of the day.

Once the second half started, much like the Cardinals punchless run game, the Seahawks took McBride out of the game by simply keeping the home offense on the sideline. He had one catch on the opening series that went for eight yards and a second target that was knocked away by safety Julian Love, but after that, he didn’t receive another target as Seattle chewed up almost the entire third and fourth quarter with demoralizing drives. He wrapped up the day with 41 yards on eight catches, turned into a non-factor in the final two quarters in the worst way possible by not even being able to do anything on the field.

### 5\. Ball security will be a point of emphasis with Seattle benefiting from a fortuitous bounce or two in victory.

Considering Seattle won by 24 points with a second half beatdown, it might not seem like a game where one play could have changed everything. But it can be argued that things would have been much different if Arizona could have gotten any points off of Price’s fumble in the second quarter and most importantly, if they could have recovered Rashid Shaheed’s fumble on the opening kickoff in the third quarter and cashed in with points to take a lead early in the second half. Fortunately for the Seahawks, the defense came through with an immediate three-and-out after Price had the ball stripped away and forced a punt. Then on Shaheed’s miscue, after the loose ball bounced multiple times, linebacker Chazz Surratt caught the fumble in mid air and took off for a 30-yard return, setting up the road squad with outstanding field position on a special teams fumble-rooski of sorts. Moments later, Smith-Njigba was in the end zone for the second of three touchdown catches and the rout was on.

But knowing how Macdonald and his staff operate, those two fumbles will be at the top of the checklist for things that need to be shored up, as the team hadn’t lost a turnover in five games dating back to last season and prides itself on taking care of the football. If either of those turnovers would have resulted in points in Glendale, the final outcome may have been significantly different in a game that was tight for two quarters.