SEATTLE — The Seahawks were up against it heading into Sunday.

Coming off a loss to a 34-17 dismantling by the emerging Chicago Bears on Monday night, Seattle was down key pieces like defensive linemen Leonard Williams and Uchenna Nwosu as well as starting quarterback Sam Darnold, the 4-4 Seahawks hosted a scrappy 3-5 Arizona Cardinals squad.

But despite the dreary vibes around the blowout loss, despite the missing pieces, Seattle shut down Arizona for a 17-3 win. Backup quarterback Drew Lock, despite a lingering elbow injury and a mid-game oblique injury, threw for 175 yards and a touchdown while running back Zach Charbonnet put on his best performance since tearing his ACL last season with 77 yards on 16 carries on a 120-yard rushing day for the Seahawks.

Add rookie first-round running back Jadarian Price going for a team-high 54 receiving yards, and it was enough for Seattle to get by as Jaxon Smith-Njigba had a season-low 51 yards on seven grabs. Tight end A.J. Barner had a day to remember, scoring on the ground on a “Barnyard” sneak play at the goal line and through the air to account for both of Seattle’s touchdowns in the first half.

But the story of the night was a bounce-back performance from Seattle’s defense, which didn’t allow a single point after Arizona’s first drive. More importantly, Seattle put together a solid night with what’s been a league-worst defensive red zone unit – the Seahawks had allowed nine straight scores from within their own 20-yard line coming into the game.

The Seahawks held the Cardinals to an 0-for-2 day in that regard, stopping Arizona in its tracks on fourth-and-goal in the waning moments of the game. Seattle had allowed its opponents to score on 83% of their red zone trips before Sunday, the worst rate in the league.

Edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence forced a fumble, had two tackles for a loss and sacked Cardinals signal caller Gardner Minshew II once. His tackle for a loss on Cardinals running back Tyler Allgeier (46 yards) started what turned into a four-down goal-line stand for Seattle in the red zone to end the game, punctuated by a Nick Emmanwori pass break-up on Arizona star Trey McBride (54 yards) in the end zone on fourth down.

“It shows that we’re not letting the BS sink in,” Lawrence said of the win. “All the talking heads, all the words around our football team, we’re holding together.”

For safety Julian Love, seeing his team flock to the ball for a combined eight tackles for a loss and just 50 total rushing yards allowed was a return to form.

“The swagger, the Seahawks style was definitely present today,” Love said.

Love added that there had been an added emphasis on the red zone at practice this week, as Seattle tries to return to a bend-don’t-break style that saw the Seahawks allow a top-five red-zone conversion rate in 2025 at 50%.

“It’s cool to have two opportunities to show that, we’ve been putting in a ton of work into our red-zone defense. We needed to, right now we’re not very good at it.

“So we want to put on a display that we’re turning this thing around.”

Star defensive tackle Byron Murphy II told The Herald the team needs “Guys playing as one” to reach their red zone form of the past. On that final drive, Lawrence set the edge with a tackle-for-loss before Devon Witherspoon covered the gaps in the defense to keep Minshew from scoring on a scramble. Two straight incompletions later, Seattle had put together a red-zone stop it could hang its hat on.

Also factoring into Sunday’s win, considering the injuries up front on defense, was edge rusher Dante Fowler Jr., who came up with a strip-sack of Minshew to end the first half. Other linemen, like usual special-teamer Mike Morris (two tackles) and reserve defensive tackle Rylie Mills (two tackles), also factored into Seattle’s group effort on defense.

“We said this game was like the power of our 70 (man roster),” head coach Mike Macdonald said postgame. “With the depth we were going to lean on with the bottom of our roster, guys did a great job of stepping in, not flinching.”

Of course, staples like Derick Hall (three tackles for loss) and Murphy (sack, two tackles for loss) also produced up front, while Love and Witherspoon combined for 15 tackles to lead the squad on the back end.

On the offensive end, it was another turnover-free showing from Lock, who spelled Darnold for a third game this season. Lock is 3-0 in those games, and his latest relief came after a week where an elbow injury limited him to only throwing on Thursday.

Lock’s velocity varied throughout the game, as he was able to zip in a second-quarter touchdown throw to Barner in a tight window from seven yards out, but missed the mark down the field at points, like a high ball for Cooper Kupp (three catches, 32 yards).

But behind a run game that picked up in the second half and a mindset of keeping the ball out of danger, Lock was able to put Seattle’s star-studded defense in positions to succeed on long fields.

It’s not a coincidence for Lock to play that way, knowing he has the NFL’s seventh-ranked scoring defense on the other end.

“I know that that’s a big thing for me going into every week, knowing that we can control the game with the run… allow our defense to have long fields to defend,” Lock said. “Getting to fourth down, it is what it is when you have (punter) Michael Dickson being able to punt and pin guys deep.”

But Lock was dealt an oblique injury in the second half, further complicating his status going forward. The eighth-year signal caller out of Missouri insisted it didn’t impact his ability to finish the game even after he was looked at in the blue medical tent. But with Darnold likely out next week in Las Vegas, Lock’s ability to recover and practice with both ailments will be a storyline to watch.

Still, the run game showed promise behind an offensive line missing new Pro Bowl guard Quenton Nelson (knee). Second-year guard Grey Zabel slid back into that left guard spot, allowing previously benched right guard Anthony Bradford to have a solid day in the run game, as Seattle was effective early in running toward Bradford and right tackle Abraham Lucas.

“With the movement that we’ve had across our line in the last two weeks, to kind of come together and especially finish the game they did, was really cool,” Macdonald said.

While Charbonnet did most of his damage with decisive cuts on the ground, Price had multiple showstopping juke moves after catches to remind fans why Seattle spent the 32nd pick on him.

Despite similar movement up front on the defensive end due to injury, Seattle bounced back from an opening 89-yard field-goal drive from Arizona to open the game by allowing just over 100 yards for the rest of the night.

“First series jitters,” Love said of the rough start, while Lawrence attributed it partially to a solid opening script of rehearsed plays by the Cardinals. “It’s like ‘OK, we just gave them 89 yards,’ and that’s kind of the swagger and ego we kind of have… and then you go out, and we shut them down the rest of the game.”

The Seahawks will be looking to put on a similar clinic next week when they face their offensive coordinator from last year’s Super Bowl win, Klint Kubiak, as they head down to Las Vegas for a date with the Raiders before a bye week.