The Arizona Cardinals haven’t beaten the Seattle Seahawks since November 2021. Sunday they get throwback jerseys and a Seahawks team down to its backup quarterback, and if that combination isn’t enough to end it, nothing else this front office is trying will be either.
Sam Darnold is out with a glute injury, so Drew Lock stepping in for Sam Darnold isn’t a Week 1 fluke anymore — it’s the entire plan. He starts at State Farm Stadium Sunday with 2025 second-round pick Jalen Milroe behind him. Mike Macdonald confirmed Darnold won’t play this week, saying the Seahawks are “going to roll with Drew and Jalen.” Lock already relieved Darnold once this year, in the Week 1 opener against New England, and turned it into a win — 16-of-22 for 187 yards, including the fourth-quarter touchdown that tied the game before Seattle kicked the go-ahead field goal.
That’s the softest look this rivalry has handed Arizona in years.
Nine straight losses will do that to a fanbase’s patience. The streak traces back to a January 2022 game, a 38-30 loss, and it has outlasted two head coaches since — Kliff Kingsbury, then Jonathan Gannon, now Mike LaFleur, each inheriting the same problem and none of them fixing it. The most recent entry was a 44-22 blowout last November. Arizona is 1-9 against Seattle since the Cardinals’ last win in this series.
So the answer, apparently, is uniforms.
The Cardinals are breaking out the Rivalries throwback (sandblasted matte helmet, copper 3D bird-head logo, the full sand-and-copper desert kit matched to the field paint) for only the second time ever. My dad still drives me past State Farm Stadium every time I’m home, and even he had nothing good to say the first time Arizona wore these, a Thursday night loss to Seattle on a last-second field goal. This is the only game they’re wearing them all season.
https://twitter.com/AZCardinals/status/1961066453530206669
The reveal video looks better than the record it’s covering for.
Jacoby Brissett has shown up. He threw for 277 yards and a touchdown in the Week 1 win over the Chargers, a real answer at quarterback, the steadiest one Arizona has had since releasing Kyler Murray back in March. But a good quarterback and a good jersey are two separate problems being treated like the same one, and only one of them explains nine years of losses.
Seattle’s counting on its own muscle memory too. The Seahawks are wearing navy and wolf grey for the fourth straight year against Arizona — the same look that beat the Cardinals last season — no reveal video required.
A win Sunday doesn’t fix nine years of losing to Seattle. It just delays the reckoning by one more week.
