Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s three-touchdown day leads Seahawks past Cardinals 31-7

When the tie stopped feeling real

Seattle’s afternoon announced itself quickly. Drew Lock found Jaxon Smith-Njigba for an 82-yard touchdown at 12:25 of the first quarter, the kind of strike that can define a box score before everyone has settled in. Arizona answered early in the second, with Jacoby Brissett hitting Trey McBride from 2 yards out at 14:57 to level the game, but that proved to be the Cardinals’ high point rather than a reset.

What followed was the clearest stretch of the game: Seattle scored the final 24 points. Smith-Njigba broke the tie again on a 7-yard touchdown catch at 12:27 of the third quarter, Jason Myers added a 33-yard field goal at 6:47, and Smith-Njigba struck once more from 12 yards at 12:40 of the fourth. By the time AJ Barner finished a 1-yard run with 1:11 left, the margin matched the flow of the day.

The Smith-Njigba line was massive and varied enough to matter beyond one big play. He finished with nine catches for 155 yards and all three of Lock’s touchdown passes, on 11 targets. That matters because Seattle did not live off one early breakdown alone; it kept returning to the same productive partnership in different parts of the field, and Arizona never found a statistical answer for it.

A game decided between the downs

The scoring summary tells one story, but the underlying numbers tell the sturdier one. Seattle ran 67 plays to Arizona’s 47, posted 381 total yards to the Cardinals’ 151, collected 23 first downs to Arizona’s 10, and held the ball for 36:33. Those are not decorative stats in a 24-point win. They are the shape of the game.

Seattle also built that control without becoming one-dimensional. Lock was efficient at 19 of 26 for 235 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, while the running game supplied 162 yards on 40 carries. Emanuel Wilson led with 92 yards on 21 rushes, and Jadarian Price added 52 on 13. The Seahawks were not perfect on third or fourth down, but 6-for-13 on third down and only two punts meant Arizona spent most of the afternoon reacting rather than dictating.

That left the Cardinals with a very narrow offensive lane. Brissett completed 17 of 28 passes for 95 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and Arizona’s team passing total was 81 net yards. McBride caught eight passes and scored, but those eight receptions produced 41 yards. Michael Wilson had 18 yards on two catches, and Marvin Harrison Jr. was targeted once without a catch. The longest Arizona reception was 9 yards, which helps explain why the Cardinals finished 3-for-12 on third down and never generated more than one touchdown drive.

Our take: Seattle’s formula looked repeatable, Arizona’s didn’t

Our take: this looked like a convincing Seattle template because it came from more than one place at once. The Seahawks got the explosive element from Smith-Njigba, the clean decision-making from Lock, and the slower, less glamorous control from a 40-carry ground game. On defense, they backed it all up by holding Arizona to 151 yards, forcing seven punts and intercepting Brissett once through Julian Love. When a team can win with chunk plays and still finish with a big edge in possession, that is a healthy profile.

Seattle still left a little on the table, and that is worth noting even in a comfortable win. The Seahawks reached the red zone five times but scored touchdowns on three of them, went 1-for-3 on fourth down, and lost a fumble by Price. In a tighter game, those details can keep an opponent alive longer than necessary. For all the polish in Lock’s stat line, the cleaner version of this performance is one that turns 381 yards and 23 first downs into even fewer empty moments.

Our take on Arizona is blunter: the passing game needs more than volume underneath. The Cardinals completed 17 passes, but they produced only 95 yards through the air from Brissett and no reception longer than 9 yards. With just 10 first downs, one red-zone trip and no field-goal attempts, there were too few threatening possessions to pressure Seattle for four quarters. Defensively, Budda Baker’s 11 tackles and the unit’s 85 total tackles show how much work that side handled, but Arizona also managed only one sack and three quarterback hits while Lock finished without an interception. If the Cardinals are looking for where this one slipped away, it starts there: too little disruption on defense and too little push downfield on offense.

Scoring moments

1. Period 1 · 12:25

   Jaxon Smith-Njigba 82 Yd pass from Drew Lock (Jason Myers Kick)

2. Period 2 · 14:57

   Trey McBride 2 Yd pass from Jacoby Brissett (Chad Ryland Kick)

3. Period 3 · 12:27

   Jaxon Smith-Njigba 7 Yd pass from Drew Lock (Jason Myers Kick)

4. Period 3 · 6:47

   Jason Myers 33 Yd Field Goal

5. Period 4 · 12:40

   Jaxon Smith-Njigba 12 Yd pass from Drew Lock (Jason Myers Kick)

6. Period 4 · 1:11

   AJ Barner 1 Yd Rush (Jason Myers Kick)