SEATTLE – The odds are stacked against Kurt Warner feeling anywhere near chipper today.
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
After the way the Seattle Seahawks defense abused the Arizona Cardinals quarterback and the rest of the offense Sunday, the 34-year-old likely is a human hematoma. It’s highly probable that he has large blotches on his body that cover the entire color spectrum.
But mostly, Warner’s battered body has to feel as painful as alimony.
Warner left the 37-12 Seahawks romp shortly before halftime because of what was announced as a groin pull. But in truth, Warner had absorbed enough punishment for five games.
He did, after all, have a target on his back and no longer has the wheels to consistently escape the pressure.
“The way we figure is, their offense goes by No. 13,” Seattle defensive end Bryce Fisher said. “If we can get him to throw us a couple of balls and get in a couple of licks on him so he’s not comfortable back there, then we’ll have a good chance to win.”
The numbers don’t tell the entire story, but they tell enough.
The Cardinals went the entire frustrating day without a touchdown to show for it. Warner, formerly the maestro of past explosive St. Louis Rams teams, was 8-for-13 passing for 105 yards. He threw neither a touchdown pass nor an interception. Fisher sacked him.
Warner’s longest completion, a 45-yard bomb to a tripping Anquan Boldin, was made possible only because Boldin was more open than Denny’s, courtesy of coverage by Kelly Herndon that was simply blown all to Guam. That Boldin didn’t waltz into the end zone either is because God is a Seahawks fan, Boldin isn’t used to his size 14s or both.
Warner’s successor, Jake McCown, fared no better. Under a furious Seahawk pass rush, McCown completed just 10 of 23 passes for 97 yards. He was sacked twice, including one that was a game-turning play in the third quarter.
On that play, strong safety Michael Boulware flew in on a blitz, slammed into McCown and separated him from the ball, on which 293-pound Rocky Bernard pounced at the Cardinals 1-yard line.
It led to the third of four Shaun Alexander touchdown runs and increased the Seahawks’ lead from 17-9 to 24-9.
“It was a zone blitz and my man stayed in and blocked,” Boulware said. “If he stays in and blocks, I can go back into coverage. But I saw a clear lane going in and I got a clean hit.”
Arizona managed just 15 first downs, 266 yards and was just 3-of-13 on third downs. The Cardinals settled for field goals. They will make place-kicker Neil Rackers All-World because they’re too mistake-prone to punch it into the end zone.
“Mainly, we’re just defeating ourselves,” McCown said. “We have to go in with the mindset that we are going to score and be aggressive when we get into the red zone. We have to be able to do everything down there.”
The Cardinals could start with overhauling the offensive line. What can Warner and McCown do when the Seahawks routinely place the quarterback under the broiler without needing to blitz?
For the great majority of the time, the Seahawks put white-hot pressure on Arizona quarterbacks with a four-man rush. Although they blitzed linebackers and safeties on occasion, most often they were able to double-team when needed in pass coverage because the defensive line was flushing the passer out of the pocket with cruel regularity.
“If you can get there without having to blitz, it’s just an added bonus when you do blitz,” nose tackle Marcus Tubbs said. “We were able to get to him with four and sack him.”
The Cardinals, a chic pick to win the NFC West, are simply a mess of a team. Now 0-3, they have little running game, few real defensive stoppers and are faced with using a backup quarterback next Sunday at home against the 49ers.
So that raises the question: How good is Seattle’s defense, a unit that has eight new starters from last season’s bunch?
At 2-1, the Seahawks have strung together two straight solid defensive efforts. One was against powerful Atlanta, in which they mostly contained the uncontainable Michael Vick and overcame second-half shortcomings from the offense.
Of course, it was at this time last season that the Seahawks were among the NFL leaders in all defensive categories. That didn’t last long at all.
Still, the feeling is that maybe, with the personnel change, this is the time for the turnaround.
“I think we can see what we can accomplish,” free safety Ken Hamlin said. “It’s still early. We have to come out and be consistent, and that’s something we’re working on right now.”
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