Beyond explosive plays, Mike Macdonald’s squad flashed a suffocating physical edge, using a relentless 10-minute ground assault to crush Arizona’s spirit and redefine Seattle’s winning formula.
The Seattle Seahawks scored 31 points Sunday, watched Jaxon Smith-Njigba catch three touchdowns and got three scores from Drew Lock in his first Seahawks start since 2023.
The possession that said the most about them came after most of the damage was already done.
Seattle took over in the fourth quarter leading the Arizona Cardinals 24-7 and spent the next 10 minutes and 14 seconds making sure Arizona barely saw the football again. Sixteen plays, 70 yards and one A.J. Barner touchdown later, the Seahawks had turned a comfortable win into a 31-7 beating.
Mike Macdonald had a simpler description.
“That’s Seahawk football right there. That’s how we want to play,” Macdonald said.
That might have been the most important thing Seattle showed all afternoon.
The explosive version of this offense is already easy to see. Lock’s first pass of the afternoon went 82 yards to Smith-Njigba for a touchdown, and the receiver added two more scores after halftime as Lock finished 19 of 26 for 235 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions.
Seattle can hit quickly.
Sunday also showed what happens when Macdonald’s team decides to slow everything down.
Running back Jadarian Price had already exited with a chest injury when the Seahawks began their final scoring drive. Macdonald said Seattle was down to one running back, leaving Emanuel Wilson to carry the load while everyone in State Farm Stadium knew where the football was going.
It didn’t matter.
Wilson kept getting the ball. Seattle’s offensive line kept moving Arizona backward, and the Cardinals couldn’t get off the field. Macdonald said the offensive line received a game ball afterward, praising the unit for “pushing piles” and playing through the whistle.
Lock might have had the easiest job in the stadium.
“All I had to do was say, ‘Set. Hut.’ Then hand it off to E-Man,” Lock said.
Seattle finished with 40 rushing attempts for 162 yards. The raw average — 4.1 yards per carry — won’t jump off the page.
Ten straight minutes disappearing in the fourth quarter will.
It also matched exactly what Seattle’s defense had spent the afternoon doing to Arizona.
The Cardinals tied the game at 7-7 on the opening play of the second quarter. From there, their next six full possessions produced five punts and a Julian Love interception.
Arizona managed only three first downs across those six drives. In the entire second half, Seattle allowed 44 yards, and 24 of those came on two runs in the final seconds after the game was long gone.
Leonard Williams had his own description for it.
“We want to be like a boa constrictor,” Williams said. “We slowly defeat teams, out-physical teams.”
That philosophy showed up on both sides Sunday.
Arizona couldn’t sustain drives against Seattle’s defense. By the time Seattle’s offense finally left the field late in the fourth quarter, 10:14 had disappeared and another touchdown was on the board.
The game had become exactly what Macdonald wanted.
That matters for a team playing without Sam Darnold, too. Seattle already showed in Week 1 that its quarterback depth could survive when Darnold’s injury forced Lock onto the field five snaps into the season, something Roundtable examined after the opener.
Against Arizona, Lock did much more than survive. He pushed the ball downfield, stayed clean with the football and fed one of the NFL’s best receivers three touchdowns.
Yet Seattle didn’t need him throwing the ball around State Farm Stadium to finish the job.
The Seahawks took a 24-7 lead and spent almost the rest of the afternoon running directly at Arizona. Their defense had already suffocated the Cardinals for a half, and the offense finished the same way — keeping the ball, moving the chains and asking Arizona to stop something it knew was coming.
Smith-Njigba’s three touchdowns will own the highlights from Seattle’s second win.
The final 10:14 offered something more useful for a defending champion trying to build its identity all over again. Seattle can create explosives, win with its backup quarterback and lean on a defense that has allowed 17 points through two games.
When the Seahawks get a lead late, Macdonald wants the rest of the afternoon to feel exhausting.
Arizona got the full 10-minute version Sunday.
