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Good morning — Does it feel good? To spend an entire week celebrating a strong victory from your Arizona Cardinals?

Considering this week was the first such instance since November 3 of 2025, I’d say it probably does. Arizona looks like a team that might make some noise this year, even if the playoffs are still a distant hope.

But the road gets much tougher against the Seahawks this week. Let’s talk about it!

— Alex D’Agostino, PHNX WKLY Editor

Most “experts” (myself included, as you might remember) wrongly predicted a Cardinals loss in week one. So a 26-14 win over the Chargers at SoFi Stadium was a (pleasant?) shock to the NFL world.

In my defense, I expected them to put up some points — and give up quite a few.

I was half right.

The Cardinals put up 26 points on the Los Angeles Chargers, and that’s considering they settled for five field goal attempts and missed one. This easily could have turned into a 30-plus-point blowout.

Mike LaFleur’s offense looked smooth and efficient. The Cardinals picked up 393 yards of total offense despite one of their touchdown drives beginning inside the Red Zone thanks to a blocked punt.

But the biggest shock was Nick Rallis’ defense. Arizona tortured Justin Herbert and held the Chargers to just two scoring drives and 268 yards of offense.

That all added up to LaFleur’s first career win in his first career game as the Cardinals’ head coach — a feat that had not been previously done since 1973, when the team still resided in St. Louis.

But as LaFleur repeated in his victory Monday press conference, humility is only a day away in the NFL. LaFleur was on to Seattle before the week one talks were close to finished. This one won’t be easy.

The Cardinals will don their Rivalry jerseys for their home opener against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday at State Farm Stadium. Arizona has not beaten Seattle since 2021, and the reasons why have been evident nearly every time.

Unfortunately, those reasons haven’t changed much, despite the injury to Seahawks QB Sam Darnold and the successful week one look of Arizona’s offense.

My Prediction: The truth is, Seattle’s defensive front can be game-wrecking. Their offensive line can move mountains. It doesn’t matter if it’s Darnold or Drew Lock under center, the Seahawks are going to run the ball, distribute it to their explosive playmakers and utterly control the line of scrimmage.

The Cardinals are going to have to find a way to move the ball on early downs. Whether that be by way of the run or quick passes. That will be much easier said than done, of course, but long third downs will likely spell death for any Arizona drive in this one.

Defensively, the key will be stopping the early-down runs. Seattle isn’t going to ask Lock to do much much, so when they do, those key plays can’t be a layup waiting to happen.

This will be a tougher-fought game, most likely. As NFC West matchups can often be, this could get dirty and ugly. But the Cardinals will not come out victorious, despite playing one the NFL’s best in a tight contest.

Seahawks 19, Cardinals 13

Now, let’s see what else is going on in Arizona sports this week: