‘Everyone knows what’s at stake’ in Seahawks’ lead over Cardinals

The Cardinals are trying to avoid the facts.

“No extra emphasis… Just like any other week,” Arizona coach Jonathan Gannon told reporters in the Phoenix area this week.

Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald has said otherwise lately. He preaches to his players that not all games are the same. Not at this time of year. Inside the division. As the first place team.

Their franchise quarterback echoes this.

“Everyone knows what’s at stake,” Geno Smith said Thursday, four days before the Seahawks (7-5) attempt to beat the second-place and NFC rival Arizona Cardinals (6-6). West, Sunday in the desert, for the second time. time in three weeks.

“We’re fighting to make the playoffs,” Smith said. “They are too.”

But Smith accurately noted: “We control our destiny. That’s what’s most important… We know we have to win, pretty much. We were in playoff mode.

Coach Mike Macdonald has had his Seahawks in playoff mode for almost a full month. That was after four losses in five games ruined Seattle’s 3-0 start and put this season on the brink.

“We talked about football getting out of the playoffs,” Macdonald said Wednesday.

The Seahawks returned from this bye week to play at San Francisco on November 17. They won that game, limiting the 49ers with a healthy Christian McCaffrey to 17 points. That ended a six-game losing streak against the defending division champions, who have since dropped to 5-7.

Seattle continued its resurgence on Macdonald’s defense by beating Arizona, limiting the Cardinals to two field goals.

Last weekend, the Seahawks beat the Jets 26-21. Seattle’s two fumbles on kickoff returns plus a third-down penalty for a first down handed New York its three first-half touchdowns. So the defense only really gave up one complete touchdown to Aaron Rodgers and New York.

The Cardinals are the team most desperate to win on Sunday. A loss would drop Arizona to effectively three games behind Seattle in the division with four games remaining in the regular season. The Seahawks would be two games ahead of the Cardinals – and Seattle would hold the first head-to-head tiebreaker by winning both games with Arizona this season.

A loss for the Seahawks would end their three-game winning streak that dropped them from last to first in the division, and put them and Arizona tied for the top spot in the West heading into the final four games. The Seahawks will then host Green Bay (9-3) and Minnesota (10-2) on back-to-back Sundays, while the Cardinals will play 3-10 against New England on December 15 and 3-9 against Carolina on December 22.

NFL analytics guru Aaron Schatz quantified how this game was the most important of Week 14 in the league in terms of whether the playoff bid changed based on the outcome. Schatz calculates that a Seahawks victory gives Seattle a 62 percent chance of making the playoffs and Arizona just a 17 percent chance.

A Cardinals win would give Arizona a 71% playoff chance and Seattle just 11%.

“It’s obviously a huge week for us,” Macdonald said, the opposite of Gannon — and the opposite of how his Seattle predecessor Pete Carroll spoke during the Seahawks’ previous 15 seasons.

“It’s a road playoff game. That’s the kind of mentality we have.

The training of Geno Smith

How is Smith preparing for this showdown in Arizona and the final five games of the regular season?

Likewise, he says he prepared for games throughout his NFL career.

Listed at 6-foot-3 and 221 pounds, Smith said he has gained 10 pounds of lean mass since last season.

How?

“Elaboration. Lots of practice,” he said.

“Yeah, I’ve been playing four days a week for about 12, 13 years now, since I’ve been in the league. Four days a week. I just think my diet has improved, and obviously our training team has done a great job as well.

Smith said he did upper body and leg strength training four days a week, one hour per session, throughout the season.

“The whole body, yes, sir,” he said.

He also says he’s eating better than he did as a 22-year-old rookie for the Jets a dozen seasons ago.

Seahawks short yardage

The Seahawks have failed most of the season on third and fourth downs and with 3 yards or less to gain. They are only 57.6% converting on third down and with 1-3 yards remaining. The league average is 67%.

They had five tries from the one-yard line while trailing in the second half against the Jets last week. They failed five times.

The problem is the thrust and performance on the offensive line iffy.

When the Seahawks threw the ball on third and fourth down and with 1 yard to go, they converted just 12 times on 21 attempts. That’s 57% out of something that should be more like 80%.

“There’s a guy here, a guy there. On offense, you have to play all 11, Smith said. “Every guy has to execute to make a play work. If we can just clean up some of our stuff there, I think we’ll be better off.

Smith blamed himself for inaccurately throwing to tight end Noah Fant, who was open in the away end zone just on second-and-goal from the 1 against the Jets.

The fact that they called four pass plays on their five attempts from the 1, including a 14-yard sack on fourth-and-goal, tells you the confidence play-caller Ryan Grubb has in the offensive line to obtain the necessary thrust to gain one meter.

Smith said he could improve on short distance. By simple means too.

“Hit Noah on the pass. It’s pretty simple here,” Smith said. “(If I achieve that), we’re not talking about that right now. But overall, if I can improve something, I’ll try to do so. And I think there’s a lot of room for improvement in that area in this situation.

“So for us, myself included, we all have to be better. It’s really everything to us, man. We just have to execute better.

Grubb acknowledges he thought his offense would have succeeded and found its rhythm by now, 12 games into his first season as an NFL offensive coordinator.

“Of course. That’s right,” he said Thursday.

“I think for us, we just haven’t had consistent success in those moments. I think the thing you have to do is keep looking and trying to find better answers, and for us, that’s what we’re committed to doing.

None of those five tries from inside the 1 against the Jets were by Smith’s quarterback. Smith and Macdonald did not respond this week, for competitive and playbook reasons, whether Smith has the freedom to change any play to stealth if he thinks he can achieve it that way. But most teams give their quarterbacks that latitude, especially veterans.

The Seahawks only attempted sneaks four times among their 21 third or fourth-and-1s. Three of them got first downs.

Why not do more with Smith?

“Without giving anything away, I think there are things. Obviously the defenses (and how they line up),” Grubb said of the quarterback sneaks. “Some people are better than others.”