Seahawks are flawed but more desperate than division-leading Cardinals

A loss to Arizona would essentially put Seattle four games behind the Cardinals in the division standings. (AP)

We’ve been dissecting this matchup for two weeks now, and it’s pretty easy to make a case for both teams winning.

The Seahawks rarely lose at home, haven’t given up a touchdown in the last two games and are 9-0 under Pete Carroll in prime-time games at CenturyLink Field with an average winning margin of nearly 17 points.

The Cardinals are a high-scoring team with a 6-2 record and a defense that has 10 more interceptions than Seattle’s.

The Seahawks are favored by three, which means it would be an even game if it were played on a neutral field.

You can dismiss the Cardinals’ record because they’ve beaten a lot of bad teams, but so have the Seahawks. They beat the Bears without Jay Cutler, the Cowboys without Tony Romo, the 49ers with Colin Kaepernick and Detroit, the worst team in the league.

I’m siding with the Seahawks because they have more at stake. If they lose, they’ll fall to 4-5 and still have a shot at a wild card. But if Minnesota wins this week, they’ll be three games behind the Vikings and 2.5 behind Atlanta (6-2, and on a bye this week) in that race with seven to go. If they lose, they’ll also fall what amounts to four games behind the Cardinals, who will hold the tie-breaker.

Personnel-wise, the Seahawks are similar to the 2013 and 2014 teams that went to the Super Bowl, enough to make you think they can go back to the championship game again. But there are also differences that make you wonder.

When you consider tangible reasons why the Seahawks are 4-4 and have only beaten teams with a combined record of 9-24, the offensive line comes to mind. Russell Wilson has been sacked a league-high 31 times, and I’m guessing the O-line will be the biggest reason why the Seahawks won’t make it back to the Super Bowl and maybe even miss out on the playoffs.

But there’s something different about the defense, too. Maybe you can explain it. I have no idea what’s going on there. You can certainly make a case that it’s playing well overall. Seattle is No. 2 in total defense and No. 2 in points allowed.

And yet, don’t you feel like they’re not exactly what they used to be? If you’re the Legion of Boom, you should have more than three interceptions, though Cary Williams, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman could tell you to shut the heck up because they’re No. 2 in pass defense.

Still, the secondary from the past two Super Bowl teams would not have given up as many fourth-quarter leads as this one has. The main difference is Williams, who joined the team this year and is causing Sherman to cover an opponent’s leading receiver.

Sunday night we’ll finally find out if the Seahawks are still Super Bowl contenders or if they’re a football version of the Mariners this year. With Lloyd McClendon’s team, we kept waiting for them to come around and they never did.

I think the two-time NFC West champs will muster up enough of an effort to beat the Cardinals and cover the spread.

Line: Seahawks by 3
Prediction: Seahawks 23, Cardinals 17
Season record against the spread: 4-3-1