DE - 93 Campbell, 98 Eason
NT - 92 D Williams, 79 Carter
DT - 90 Dockett, 91 Holliday
When they bring their "A" game, Campbell and Docket are as good a pair of bookends as there are in the NFL. Campbell had a blocked FG vs. Washingotn. Williams arrrived overweight and is playing himself into shape. Carter and Eason (though lighter) are pushing him at NT. They played well late in the game vs. Carolina. Card pass rushers are doing a better job this season of getting their hands up into passing lanes. The Redskin running attack made mincemeat of our front seven (It's hard to tell on TV, but it looked as if our defensive linemen - whose traditional responsibility in a 3-4 is to keep blockers off our LB's were failing to do so, possibly because they're more quick than big).

In terms of PFF ratings, Campbell is solid if not spectacular across the board. Dockett is -1.3 vs. the run but +1.5 rushing the passer.Dan Williams is +1.1 overall. Eason is weak against the run and -2.1 overall. Hoiliday is+1.9 overall.Carter is rated a tad below average in all areas.

WLB - 55 Porter, 50 Schofield
ILB  51 Lenon, 52 Bradley
ILB- 558 D Washington, 56 Walker,
SLB - 53 Haggans, 94 Acho
Most intriguing Cardinal unit. - full of potential but also questions of whether or not that potential will be filled. Biggest Cardinal concern is their pass rush (which figures to come mostly from their weak side. Questions are: Does the aging Porter still have enough left and will a healthier Schofield be as explosive as he's expected to be? Inside, we have an interesting 3-man starting rotation of Lenon (aka Mr. Solid), a budding star in Daryl Walker and newly added Stewart Bradley (Eagles) who, when healthy, can play at a Pro Bowl level. Acho is a rook. Walker adds ballast inside. Cards were without arguably their best LB vs. the Redskins when D Washington couldn't go. Lenon was also in and out (& back in) late in the game due to an ankle injury. It seemed to me that this unit needs a deep and talented 6 or 7-man rotation or they wear down. When Washington and Lenon were both out of the game, we had to rely on guys like Acho and Walker to pick things up late in the game, and while they weren't terrible, our production did tail off.

Lenon (-2.8), Porter (-4.9) and Walker (-2.9) are in negative territory overall - although Paris is +3.5 in pass coverage. Haggans (+6.4) and D Washingon (+6.0) are grading out in the elite range overall. Scofield is weak against the run (-2.2) but OK on the pass rush (+1.2).

RCB - 21 Peterson, 31 Marshall,   22 Butler
LCB- 20 Jefferson, 27 Adams, 32 Lindsay   
SS-  24 Wilson,   41 Abdullah, 40 Tillman
FS- 25 Rhodes,  49 Rash Johnson
Coming into preseason, the Cardinal secondary actually looked overstocked due to the addition of high-profile draft pick Peterson to play next to DRC. But DRC was traded for Kolb and opposite starting corner (Toler) is injured and out for the season.  DRC was replaced by AJ Jefferson (whom I think is almost as athletic as DRC but more physical a tackler and more reliable and aggressive in coverage). Cards brought in veteran Marshall (more of an "off cover guy) to replace Toler until Peterson was ready to step in (& the Cards apparently decided that PP21 is ready, because they just promoted him to start opposite Jefferson). After the Final 53 cutdown, the Cards picked up youngsters Butler and Lindsay to add depth at corner. Both Peterson and Jefferson are being picked on by opposing QB's and will continue to be picked on until they become more experienced and start consistently making QB's pay for throwing in their direction. They're not all that bad right now, and, barring injury, I expect this to happen, but until it does, it won't be  pretty. Right now, an injured A-Dub is better than any other SS we can put on the field, but I don't think we can expect him to consistently play at an A+ level - there may be an occasional flash of brilliance, but most of the time, we'll have to settle for something like a B-minus. Rhodes has been the proverbial "man on an island" back there, and has been both very very good and very very not-so-good at times.

The PFF numbers aren't pretty. Only Jefferson (+2.0 in coverage and  +2.1 overall) and Adrian Wilson (+1.1 as a run defender are in noticeably positive territory. In terms of Overall ratings, Rhodes is a -3.0. Peterson is a -4.2. A-Dub is a 1.5 and Marshall is a -2.2. Rhodes is +1.2 against the run, but that's about it.

K-04 Feely
P- 09 Zastudil
H - 009 Zastudil
LS- 82 Leach
KR - 37Stephens-Howling, 20 Jefferson
PR - 21 Peterson
Feely's new nickname should be: "Mr. Everything." He accounted for 25 of the Cardinals' 43 points vs. Denver last year. I'm not sure Zastudil represents an improvement over Graham (who was the maestro of the punt inside the ten). LSH remains a home run threat on KR's but was injured last week and replaced by Jefferson (who did OK). Peterson has displayed the poise of a veteran (plus the home run potential of Sproles or Hester) returning punts. He already has a record setting 89-yard return on his resume.

Feely is +1.5 in KO rating, but -1.1 in FG's (probably because of the shanked one vs. Washington). LSH (+1.8 probably reflecting his production both as a returner and gunner) and Peterson (+1.6) also had plus-ratings.

 Seahawks vs. Cardinals Matchups

Seattle Passing Attack vs. Cardinal Pass Defense
Tavaris Jackson throwing to receivers M Williams, Obomanu and Tate and TE star Miller. We don't know if Rice will be back. He'll be protected by a suspect O-line missing Robert Gallery

Cardinal pass rushers will bring a lot of pressure and hope to force Jackson into mistakes. Cards have had coverage/communications problems in the back-end and must clean this up to avoid wide open receivers walking gracefully untouched into the end zone.

Jackson is similar in style and athletic ability to Cam Newton, so our defense should abide by "Newton Rules" (i.e a spy; outside contain, discipline vs. waggles and roll-outs, hands up to block passing lanes etc.).

The PFF log indicates that Seahawk receivers were thrown at  33 times. vs. the Niners and 27 times vs. Pittsburgh - but the profile of whom was thrown at varied considerably from game to game. In Game 1, Obomanu and Baldwin were thrown at 6 times apiece. M Williams received 5 throws. Forsett was thrown to 4 times. But in Game 2 vs. the Steelers, while Obomanu was thrown -to 6 more times, Baldwin was only thrown at twice and M Williams 3 times. Big play yardage guys were Baldwin 5 catches/87 yards and M Williams (5 grabs/43 yards).

Seattle Running Attack vs. Cardinal Run Defense
Although Lynch shredded us  a year ago, he and Forsett have been feeble so far in 2 games, averaging 2.7 yards per carry. Lack of cohesion and depth on the O-line can't have helped.

Seahawks only dialed up an average of 17.5 running plays a game during the past 2 weeks. Lynch had 54% of the carries. Jackson had 20%. Forsett had 18%. Directionally, 37% of Seattle's carries were around both ends (23% around right end and 14% around left end). 31% were inside the tackles. 17% of the plays were equally split off either tackle.  tackle15% of the running plays were QB scrambles.

Cardinal run defenders were blacktopped far too often by Redskin rushers. The O-line has to play stouter and protect our LB's (who in turn have to protect their gaps, execute the right assignments and flow to the ball).

Cardinal Passing Attack vs. Seattle Pass Defense
I like this matchup. We're guessing Fitz will be occupied by their best coverage guy (Trufant) but that doesn't mean he won't prevail more often than not. More important, it leaves the vulnerable Browner (& backup Thurmond) to deal with Doucet and Roberts with Earl Thomas providing help over the top. The 2 Seattle safeties (Chancellor and Thomas) are outstanding, but may have their hands full helping out Browner while still accounting for TE's (Heap and King), a 3rd WR  or a RB out of the backfield.

Expect the Seattle bookends (Brock and Clemons) to want to prove they're better than they've shown thus far. They are no doubt licking their chops at the prospect of facing L Brown and Keith. It's up to our two OT's to step up to the challenge.

Cardinal Running Attack vs. Seattle Run Defense
Beanie has approached the 100-yard yardstick in both our games, but the coaches don't seem comfortable making him our 20 - 25 carry bell cow. (I'm guessing he'll have to prove he can consistently gain 4 or more yards each on three or more consecutive carries before Wiz and Russ will hand over the keys to the jalopy). A significant part of the problem has to do with blocking/timing, and our O-line, TE's WR's and FB will have to improve significantly.

Seattle stopped the run nicely vs. SF but not so nicely vs. Pittsburgh (Perhaps the game tape will reveal a weakness we can exploit). We continue to believe that even the threat of a run game can make play action passing all the more effective (& vice versa). So we'd better count on runnning the ball more than he have thus far in our first 2 games.

Special Teams
I don't know much about Seattle's special teams except that , if Leon Washington is healthy, we'd better watch ourselves. (Some receiving and KR/PR stats for Washington do show up in both games, but his number of touches are way down). Zastudil has not proved to be especially good at directional kicking and this scares us. Memo to Feely and Dave Z: "If you see #33 out there on the field, boot it the other way."

Final Word|
Game looks good on paper, but remember that Seattle is famous for its home crowd-noise (something we didn't handle very well in DC).