Coming off the bye, Sunday’s matchup with Arizona has the feel of a playoff game. It’s being played in primetime, on national TV and certainly has playoff implications. A win could ignite the run of victories the entire country has been predicting and waiting for. Lose, and they’ve dug themselves a deeper hole to try and climb out of.

The Three biggest questions for the game will be: Can the defense force turnovers? Will this be the game Marshawn gets it going? How will the offensive line handle the blitz?

Turnovers

For whatever reason, the Seahawks secondary has not been able to come up with interceptions. While there have been games with forced fumbles, interceptions have been scarce. That fact makes the defense’s stoutness even more impressive. Imagine what they could do with a couple picks tonight.

Beast Mode

Injuries have slowed him a bit this year, and so far Lynch has only recorded one 100-yard game. That came against a pedestrian 49er team. Although he has shown flashes of the Beast Mode of old, this could be the game to get him on track and power the Seahawks through the rest of the year.

So much of the offense depends on Marshawn, therefore tonight he really needs to have a big game.

The blitz

The Cardinals have one of the highest blitz rates in the league, and the Seahawks are one of the worst teams against the blitz. Not a good combination of course. Even with their marked improvement the past few games, the ‘Hawks are giving up a sack over 40 percent of the time they’re blitzed.

Tonight will be as good a test of any to see if the offensive line really has improved.

If the Seahawks can check all three of the above issues off as completed, they should have done enough to come away with a home win. With a win, they’ll inch to within one game of the Cardinals for the NFC West crown, and put all the pressure on them when they visit Phoenix in Week 17.

Photo: Flickr/Mike Morris