Palmer completed 29 of 48 pass attempts for 363 yards and threw for three touchdowns, although he also had two balls stripped out of his hands and tossed one interception, ending the game with a quarterback rating of 96.1.
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Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) passes as center Patrick Lewis (65) blocks Arizona Cardinals’ Calais Campbell (93) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, November 15, 2015, in Seattle.
“Mine (the celebration) was OK”, said Palmer, not known as the fleetest-of-foot passer. “It’s an all-day job against those guys”.
“We definitely been through a few stuff since I’ve been here so I don’t see why we can’t come out of this”, Wagner said. The Cardinals held Seattle on its next possession and Ellington added the punctuation, sprinting down the sideline on a third-down run to cap Arizona’s big night.
Trailing 19-0 in the second quarter, the Seahawks staged a defense-inspired rally to take a 29-25 lead early in the fourth, but couldn’t stave off the Arizona Cardinals Sunday night and lost 39-32 at CenturyLink Field, a defeat that probably dooms their playoff hopes (box).
S Earl Thomas prevented a touchdown when he picked off Palmer in the end zone in the first quarter after Palmer had orchestrated a 15-play, 75-yard drive.
The game against Arizona was just the latest example of why Seattle needs to get back to a heavy emphasis on the running game. After New York’s Josh Brown made his fourth field goal of the game with 1:47 remaining, Tom Brady drove the Patriots 44 yards, converting a fourth-and-10 before Gostkowski, the NFL’s leading scorer the past three seasons, made his franchise-record 264th career field goal with the Patriots. You could make the argument that Seattle reverts to their passing game when they are down, but in all of Seattle’s losses they have had a lead in the forth quarter, so they obviously have seldom been in a position where they needed to make the rushing attack a secondary option. Seattle committed 14 penalties and couldn’t overcome the mistakes of the first half. The offensive penalties kept Seattle facing long-yardage situations, while the defensive penalties kept Arizona’s drives alive. In short, playing against a team of reeling players, the Bengals failed one of their easiest tests of the season. “Sorry. We’re not allowed to”. Johnson gets to re-team with Matt Hasselbeck again, and two of his three touchdowns on the season have come from the 40-year-old’s arm. He struggles to get the ball out on time, and he’s quick to leave the pocket, a fact that my colleague Pete Prisco has mentioned once or twice.
“We don’t play like that”, Carroll said of the penalties. “Just excited – that was a risky play call that was very beneficial for us”. When we were clicking, the offense wasn’t.
It showed Sunday night when they traveled into the depths of the notoriously hostile Land of the 12th Man and survived with a 39-32 win over the two-time reigning division champion Seahawks. Yes, Seattle still has a good defense, but dominating would certainly be a stretch. The receiving group includes Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse who have proven their worth with this Seahawks team, but are not able to be the main contributors at this point.
We don’t make a big deal about “what is a catch”, we don’t control that.
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-LB Bruce Irvin left in the fourth quarter with a knee injury he sustained on the play that ended in LB Bobby Wagner’s 22-yard fumble return for a touchdown that gave the Seahawks the fourth-quarter lead. “We’ll see what that means”, Carroll said. Roethlisberger began the game on the bench to rest his sprained left foot but entered in the first quarter after Landry Jones went down with a left ankle injury.
