6 Winners & Losers from #AZvsSEA

The Cardinals offense fell flat and the defense was penalized at the worst possible times, but which defensive player stood out for the Cardinals?

Well, that game happened.

The worst offensive output for the Arizona Cardinals all season-long happened against the worst defense in the NFL in the Seattle Seahawks, and wouldn’t you know it?

That means there will naturally be a set of losers (obviously) but also who were the winners?

Winner: Isaiah Simmons

Easily the biggest winner of the night. With De’vondre Campbell seemingly on a pitch count and banged up, Simmons’ snaps increased yet again and he walked away with a solid night statistically:

While he’s had some flashes before, Simmons has looked like a new man ever since the interception of Russell Wilson. He’s been dynamic in coverage and had his best game yet as a pro, even racking up a sack.

If Simmons plays like this all the time…my goodness. He is starting to look like the guy that the Cardinals wanted when they selected him 8th overall and has even started to make De’Vondre Campbell look a bit like an afterthought.

Loser: The Offensive Line…minus maybe Mason Cole

Kyler Murray was sacked 3 times and took 7 QB hits and the offensive line contributed in a big way to over 100 yards worth of penalties. And it wasn’t just one guy either.

Two false starts on D.J. Humphries, a flag on Justin Pugh, J.R. Sweezy holding in the endzone for a safety.

And to top it all off, Kelvin Beachum beaten badly on a Carlos Dunlap pass rush that didn’t even give Kyler time to step up and move. The Seahawks were able to get pressure with only 4 guys for a lot of the night and they essentially were the one position group that you could point to as to costing Arizona the game overall.

Chalk it up to a bad game or a few cracks getting exposed but it’s worrisome given how Arizona wasn’t able to move the ball on the ground or through the air.

Winner: Vance Joseph’s management of a depleted defense

The Cardinals defensive line entering the game…yikes.

And yet?

Arizona wasn’t gashed on the run game. They even got a few sacks in on Wilson. And when you look at 28 points…it seems bad.

But really, that was 3 touchdowns on the defense, a missed XP, and a safety that the offense gave up. For an offense that had been averaging 30+ points a game…26 points and holding them to that is actually impressive.

Vance deserves props.

And hopefully he’ll have a fuller deck to work with coming off of the bye on the defensive line even though Jalen Thompson’s injury looked pretty severe and season-ending.

Loser: Dre Kirkpatrick’s dumb penalty

Nothing more to say about it. You were off the field, gave in to some barbing and cost your team a touchdown.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Winner: Seattle’s continual reign of supremacy in the NFC West

Just when it seems the Cardinals are ready to take over or Seattle’s doom seems evident, they manage to slip through the fingers of whoever is trying to surpass them. And now with a pancake schedule coming up with multiple games against the NFC East & the Jets with a resurgent defense, they very well might be ready to ascend to the division winners once again as the Cardinals couldn’t take advantage

Loser: Patrick Peterson’s reign as a shutdown CB

It was all most Cardinals fans could do to shut off Troy Aikman raving over D.K. Metcalf for the majority of the game.

And yeaaaah it looked pretty bad at times.

P2 had kind of a bad day, yeah…

Overall, I don’t think Peterson’s “washed” as people are saying. Few can guard D.K. Metcalf and the Cardinals have earned every penny from his deal just as he’s earned being the highest-paid CB in the league from them.

But the receivers like Metcalf are getting younger and Patrick’s getting older, and if his one accolade this year was “he shut Metcalf down” well then…it probably doesn’t bode well for him finishing his career in Arizona.

He might have been burned 3 times by D.K. had it not been for two critical drops. And while it might be sad, it’s not like the season’s over or Peterson’s done as he’ll get at least 6 more games in the desert & who knows after that?

But like everywhere else in life, Father Time comes for us all, and it especially came for Peterson last night.

Who were your winners & losers, BirdGang?

Sound off in the comments below!