Cardinals vs. Seahawks: Score and Twitter Reaction for "Sunday Night Football"

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The Arizona Cardinals went off script. As a result, they walked away from Sunday night"s showdown against the Seattle Seahawks with a 39-32 victory and a three-game lead in the NFC West.

It wasn"t supposed to go that way for the two-time defending NFC champions, especially after they battled back from an early 19-0 deficit and took the lead in the fourth quarter with two consecutive strip-sacks of Carson Palmer that led to touchdowns. The defense was flying around and creating turnovers, the "12s" in CenturyLink Field were roaring and everything was going according to plan.

Then Palmer, Andre Ellington and the Arizona offense punched back with two straight touchdown drives of their own to stake their claim as the best team in the division and perhaps the entire conference.

Palmer hit tight end Jermaine Gresham for a touchdown to take the lead in the final quarter, and Ellington sent the Seattle fans home with a 48-yard scamper on third down with less than two minutes remaining. Rich Eisen of NFL Network noted it was heartbreak as usual for Seahawks fans this season:

ESPN Stats & Info emphasized how the Cardinals are the one team that doesn"t seem to be intimidated by the venue or moment in the Pacific Northwest:

Despite the back-and-forth second half, the Cardinals controlled the early proceedings and jumped out to a 19-0 lead. While the offense did plenty of work in the opening two quarters, the defense established the initial momentum with a safety, as the NFL shared:

From there, Palmer hit Michael Floyd with two touchdown passes, one from 27 yards out and one from 35 yards out. The Arizona Cardinals passed along the first connection:

Bill Barnwell of ESPN highlighted theanomalous nature of the Seattle deficit:

The Seahawks bounced back with a touchdown late in the second quarter when fullback Will Tukuafu scored from a yard out. John Boyle of Seahawks.com reacted to the play:

The Cardinals added a field goal as time expired in the second quarter to take a 22-7 lead into the locker rooms, but the scariest moment of the first 30 minutes came when Arizona guard Mike Iupati was taken off the field in an ambulance.Sports Illustrateddescribed the development: "Iupati slammed his head into Kam Chancellor"s shoulder. Went down right away. Sending most positive thoughts for his recovery."

The Cardinals said the guard went to the hospital with a neck injury and had feeling in his extremities, while Tony Softli of Sports Radio 950 KJR in Seattle shared the scene:

The Seahawks went uptempo to start the second half and drove into the red zone with relative ease. However, the Cardinals forced a field goal to keep the lead at 22-10.

Seattle"s momentum came to a halt on its next possession when Russell Wilson overthrew an open Doug Baldwin and Arizona safety Tyrann Mathieu picked off the pass. The Cardinals took advantage with a field goal to open up a 25-10 advantage, and Matt Bowen of ESPN praised the defensive back who made it happen:

Interception or not, the Wilson-Baldwin duo was far from done. The two connected for a 32-yard touchdown on the ensuing drive to help cut the lead to 25-17.

Sports Illustratedanalyzed the drive:"Wilson had two clean pockets and two big pass plays on that drive. This is not a coincidence."

Gregg Bell of the News Tribunepointed to the unfortunate turn of events for the visiting Cardinals:

Seattle got the ball back and elected to go for a critical fourth down in Arizona territory. Tukuafu converted, but Cardinals coach Bruce Arians used his final challenge on the spot. The play stood, although Adam Green of ArizonaSports.com thought Arians had a case:

The Seahawks kept possession, but Arizona held strong after the conversion and forced a punt, taking the ball and the eight-point lead into the fourth quarter.

However, picking up that first down on the challenge allowed Seattle to pin Arizona back on its ensuing punt. Cliff Avril sacked Palmer and forced a fumble on the ensuing drive, and K.J. Wright scooped it up to set the Seahawks up at the 3-yard line.

Jayson Jenks of theSeattle Timesimplied it was business as usual for Avril:

Marshawn Lynch ran it in for a touchdown, but the Seahawks failed on the two-point conversion and still found themselves trailing 25-23. Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com harkedback to the first half and Arizona"s failure to secure a significant lead before the stretch run:

Things continued to tumble downhill for Palmer and the Cardinals offense on the next possession. Wright sacked Palmer and forced another fumble, and Bobby Wagner ran it in for a touchdown. The Seahawks once again couldn"t connect on the two-point conversion, but they were suddenly ahead 29-25. The NFL shared the play:

Jenks highlighted the biggest issue for the Cardinals:

To Arizona"s credit, it marched down the field following the consecutive strip-sacks and finished an 83-yard drive with the 14-yard scoring strike from Palmer to Gresham. Just like that, the Cardinals held a 32-29 lead. The NFL passed along the most important throw of the night for the USC product, even though he tallied 363 passing yards and three scores:

Ian Furness of Sports Radio 950 KJR pointed to a crucial illegal-contact penalty on Wagner that kept the drive alive:

Arizona managed a defensive stop on the next possession and faced a 3rd-and-4 with just more than two minutes left. Rather than going for a first down with a short throw at the sticks, the Cardinals ran a draw with Ellington.All he did was take it 48 yards to the house to bust open the game at 39-29.

Doug Farrar ofSports Illustratednoted the play call set the stage for the dramatic score:

Art Thiel ofSportspress Northwestdid not paint a pretty picture for the Seahawks" immediate future:

Seattle added a field goal with 58 seconds remaining to trim the lead to 39-32, but it failed to recover the onside kick and left the stadium with a three-game deficit in the division and a stunning head-to-head loss against the team it is chasing.

What"s Next?

The Seahawks still haven"t been over .500 all season, and they are running out of time if they plan on making a playoff run down the stretch after reaching the Super Bowl two years in a row. The good news is that the schedule becomes more manageable with four more home games in the last seven, including winnable contests against the San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns within the next five weeks.

The Seahawks also travel to the 2-7 Baltimore Ravens later in the season. The opportunities will be there, but this team is 4-5 and hasn"t looked anywhere near the dominant force it has been over the past few seasons.

As for the Cardinals, they are in the driver"s seat in the division at 7-2 and still have the rematch against Seattle at home in the final regular-season contest. However, Palmer and Co. face the undefeated Cincinnati Bengals next and still play the 7-2 Minnesota Vikings and 6-3 Green Bay Packers.

The Cardinals also have difficult road games against the St. Louis Rams and Philadelphia Eagles, which underscores why Sunday"s victory was critical in terms of creating breathing room in the playoff race. Even with a difficult slate, it would take a collapse at this point for Arizona to miss the postseason.

Postgame Reaction

There were a number of concerns from Seattles perspective after the game, including the slow start, the sheer number of penalties and the teams inability to get off the field when it mattered most.

Carroll summed up the start of the game in simple terms, per Liz Mathews of 710 ESPN Seattle: We did terrible in the first half.

To Seattles credit, it battled back, but the 14 penalties for 131 yards proved too much to overcome. Carroll said, "We didn"t play that game the way we wanted to because of all of the penalties, per the Seahawks.

Carroll at least made sure to point out that readiness was not an issue for his club, per Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times: Our guys were jacked. They were so fired up to play this game.

The Seahawks may have been fired up, but the defense appeared to lose its will in the final minutes when Arizona bled the clock away before Ellington busted loose for the decisive score. Part of the issue was the time of possession, which the Cardinals won 38:52 to 21:08.

Avril put it bluntly when asked about the defense being on the field for nearly 40 minutes, per Condotta: That sucked.

As for the Cardinals, they deserve plenty of praise for overcoming the emotional roller coaster of blowing their early lead. They came back and earned recognition from Arians, per Peter King of Sports Illustrated: Never been prouder of a group of guys, to weather the kind of storm they weathered.

The Ellington run was the biggest play of a back-and-forth contest, and Mathieu commented on it in the aftermath, per Kyle Odegard of AZCardinals.com: That play that Andre made? Amazing.

The play was amazing, but so was Arizonas ability to overcome a hostile crowd and beat the two-time defending NFC champions the way it did.

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2589782-cardinals-vs-seahawks-score-and-twitter-reaction-for-sunday-night-football