SEATTLE — The schedule says the Seahawks have seven games left this season.
But as darkness descended on Lumen Field Sunday afternoon with the Arizona Cardinals departing following a 23-13 victory, it felt like the Cardinals left with all of Seattle’s remaining hopes with them.
In a game that was pretty much a must-win for Seattle in the playoff race, Seattle instead was dominated from the start by an Arizona team forced to start veteran backup Colt McCoy at quarterback instead of the injured Kyler Murray.
Seattle is now 3-7, having lost five of its last six, still has road games against the Rams and Arizona, and must finish 6-1 the rest of the way just to avoid the first losing season of Russell Wilson’s career.
But if the news of McCoy starting initially seemed like a big break for Seattle, it instead served to make this one of the most unfathomable — if not maybe the single most disappointing — losses of the Pete Carroll era.
Losing to Murray might have been one thing.
But letting McCoy throw for 328 and without standout receiver DeAndre Hopkins?
While the defense deserved a hefty share of the blame, save most of it for the offense as Seattle was outgained for the game 413-266.
Seattle wanted to go ball control and run it a lot to take advantage of a shoddy Arizona rush defense.
But the Seahawks couldn’t move it consistently in the first half, and once again, after falling behind in the second half, they mostly gave up on it.
Still, for a few minutes that old Wilson/Seahawks magic felt as if it might reappear.
The Seahawks seemed dead in the water, trailing 16-6 early in the fourth quarter, when a flag flew on a pass into the end zone on a third-and-5 play, with Jordyn Brooks caught with his back turned defending running back James Conner.
But right tackle Kelvin Beachum was called for a personal foul after the play, negating the penalty on Brooks.
Seattle then got the third down stop and usually reliable kicker Matt Prater, who is 24th all time in field goals made, missed from 36 yards.
Seattle, which had not scored an offensive touchdown since the 8:09 mark of the third quarter of its win over Jacksonville on Oct. 31, then drove 75 yards in five plays to cut the lead to 16-13. The score came on a 2-yard run by DeeJay Dallas with 7:05 left.
The drive was jump-started by a 48-yard completion from Wilson to Tyler Lockett on the first play, with Dallas then gaining 15 yards on a third-and-1 to take it to the 2.
To that point, the Cardinals had thoroughly dominated, outgaining the Seahawks 349-182.
But Arizona had done just enough to keep Seattle in it — notably a Prater miss of an extra point as well as another field goal from 39 yards.
So, when Seattle scored, it had the feeling that maybe the Seahawks could pull off one of their more unfathomable Houdini acts to win the game and keep playoff hope alive.
Instead, the Cardinals calmly responded with a drive that drove a dagger through Seattle’s season.
The Cardinals used a good kickoff return to start at their 33 and then moved quickly to the Seattle 4, the big play coming when McCoy escaped pressure to hit Zach Ertz for 20 yards on third-and-7.
Arizona appeared to have the clinching TD when McCoy rolled out and hit Christian Kirk diving in the back of the end zone. But after it was initially called a TD it was ruled Kirk did not have possession.
That set up third-and-goal.
Seattle blitzed and Jamal Adams was called for a pass interference on Ertz putting the ball at the 1. James Conner scored on the next play, putting Arizona ahead 23-13 with 2:20 left.
And a Seattle team that had won 10, 11 and 12 games the last three seasons now has seven losses before Thanksgiving.
Arizona led 13-6 at the end of a first half.
The Cardinals outgained Seattle 213-144 but missed a point after and a 39-yard field goal on the final play of the first half.
And Arizona seemed unhappy with how the clock ran from 15 seconds to 3 on a second-down play that forced it to settle for a field goal instead of running one more play — Arizona still had a timeout after reaching Seattle’s 21.
The Seahawks, meanwhile, lamented that they were held to field goals on two drives inside the Arizona 10, stretching their touchdown-less streak to six quarters.
Seattle’s stated goal all week was to get back to committing to the run, and the Seahawks did that early, with five rushes out of nine plays in the first quarter good for 32 yards.
But it was passing that largely got Seattle close — a 25-yard Wilson-to Lockett pass set up a Jason Myers field goal of 27 yards midway through the second quarter, and a 31-yard Wilson-to-Lockett hookup combined with a personal foul on Arizona set up a second kick, also of 27 yards.
But each time, Seattle had a first down at the 9 and couldn’t get it in.
Arizona scored touchdowns on drives of 82 and 92 yards, each time McCoy hitting tight end Zach Ertz for short scores — 1 yard in the first quarter and 2 yards in the second.
McCoy was 19-for-23 for 177 yards in the first half, exploiting what many Seattle opponents have of late — the Seahawks’ inability to cover running backs and tight ends.
Ertz had five receptions for 44 yards and the two TDs while running back Conner had four receptions for 34 yards.
Wilson, who took some snaps under center — in contrast to the shutout in Green Bay — was 6 of 11 for 94 yards in the first half but was 0-for-4 on throws inside the 9.
The Cardinals then used a short field thanks to an out-of-bounds kickoff to move into possession for a 53-yard field goal by Prater early in the third quarter to make it 16-6.
When Seattle had to punt following its next series, things looked especially bleak.
The Seahawks thought they caught a break when Sidney Jones appeared to pick off a third-down pass by McCoy and return it to the Arizona 11 on the next series.
But after review, it was determined the ball hit the ground before Jones controlled it. That instead made it an Arizona fourth down and after the punt, Seattle had at its own 22, a difference in field position of 67 yards.
It was a tough break for a Seattle team that needed every one it could get. But on this day, it rarely felt like the Seahawks deserved much good fortune.
