The biggest game of the NFC West season so far will take place on Sunday Night Football when the Seattle Seahawks host the Arizona Cardinals at CenturyLink Field. The game can be streamed live on NBC's website.
Cardinals vs. Seahawks 2015 live stream: Time, TV schedule and how to watch online
The Seahawks will host an NFC West showdown on Sunday night.
Both teams are coming off a bye and looking to make strong playoff pushes over the second half. The Cardinals are 6-2, two games ahead of the 4-4 Seahawks. A win this week would give them a stranglehold over the division, with a Week 17 rematch in Glendale looming.
Despite two hiccups at home to the St. Louis Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers, the Cardinals have looked like one of the best teams in football this year. Carson Palmer is having one of his best seasons at the age of 35. After eight games, he's on pace for 4,772 passing yards and 40 touchdowns, which would both be career-high marks. He continued his dominant ways in Week 8, shredding the Cleveland Browns for 374 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-20 win.
The defense continues to deliver for Arizona, ranking third in rushing yards and seventh in passing yards allowed per game. That stingy defense will be a problem for a Seahawks offense still trying to find its identity.
The Seahawks crawled back to .500 after a 2-4 start to the season, but they’re not out of the woods yet. A loss at home here would be a hugely damaging blow to their division title hopes, particularly with the 4-4 Rams owning a head-to-head tiebreaker.
In Week 8, Seattle edged out a 13-12 win over a Dallas Cowboys squad still missing Tony Romo. The Seahawks kept the Cowboys out of the end zone, but it was a far closer result than people expected.
For Seattle to win this game, the running game must get back on point. Marshawn Lynch has been battling leg injuries most of the year and looked rather sluggish against the Dallas Cowboys, rushing for 71 yards on 21 carries, a per-carry average of just 3.4.
Of course, Lynch and Russell Wilson haven't been helped out by the offensive line, which is one of the worst in football. The Seahawks rank dead last in sack rate, with a sack allowed on 13.2 percent of pass attempts. They're also 32nd in red zone percentage and 24th in points scored per game.
That anemic offense has had a ripple effect on the rest of the team, in particular a defense that gets tired down the stretch, leading to multiple fourth-quarter collapses. All four of Seattle’s losses this year came when the team had a lead going into the final quarter.
Despite those concerns, the defense continues to be one of the league's best, ranking eighth in rushing yards and second in passing yards allowed per game. Michael Bennett is having a lights-out year with 6.5 sacks, while Richard Sherman did a marvelous job shutting down Dez Bryant two weeks ago. The Legion of Boom is still alive and well, but they've been more vulnerable than in previous years.
For now, Arizona looks like the more complete team, but the Seahawks have the home-field advantage and crazy things always happen in these intense divisional matchups. Hence, the Seahawks opened up as slight 3-point favorites with an over/under of 45, according to OddsShark.
How to watch
When: 8:25 p.m. ET
Where: CenturyLink Field, Seattle
TV: NBC
Announcers: Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya
Online: NBC Sports Live Extra
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