Madden Simulation, Cardinals vs. Seahawks: Arizona gets 4-point win over defending champs

Revenge of the Birds is back, bringing to you the long awaited Cardinals vs. Seahawks game at CenturyLink Field. Madden is an even 5-5 thus far is predicting the outcome of the Cardinals games. We hope the way this simulation went, that Madden has a winning record. All-pro. 8 minute quarters. 10 second excel clock. Drew Stanton. Bruce Arians. Larry Fitzgerald. What do you think Madden predicted for this one?

Drumroll…

17-13 Cardinals

Drew Stanton and Russell Wilson were fairly evenly matched with 237 and 232 yards respectively and a touchdown a piece. However, Drew Stanton threw zero interceptions while Wilson threw one in the red zone. Both completion percentages were near 75%. The Cardinals had the advantage on the ground as Andre Ellington rushed for 72 yards and a touchdown while Marshawn Lynch rushed for 52 yards. So much for beast mode.

Doug Baldwin lead his team in receptions and yards with eight  catches for 70 yards and the lone receiving touchdown. However, with Percy Harvin being traded to the Jets, the Seahawks receiving core visibly struggled in comparison to the Cardinals. Larry Fitzgerald led the team with a whopping 116 receiving yards and the team’s lone touchdown Michael Floyd, who had a huge game against Detroit, had four grabs for 44 yards. John Brown had three atches for 43 yards to help highlight the dominant Cards receiving core.

The Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu had 11 solo tackles and an interception, which may have earned him the NFC defensive player of the week honors had this simulation been real life. Calais Campbell had the Cardinals one sack during the start of the second half. The Seahawks had a superior performance on their end despite causing no turnovers. They had 6 tackles for losses including two sacks by Cliff Avril and Tony McDaniel. They constantly stopped the Cardinals on third down, which kept their team close despite a lacking offensive performance.

Both kickers were perfect. Chandler Catanzaro hit from 48 yards and Steven Hauschka, the Seahawks kicker, hit from 38 and 52 yards. There were plenty of third downs stops making punt performance a big deal in this game. Both punters averaged an equal amount of 36.6 yards per punt but three of Drew Butler’s punts, the Cardinals punter, were within the 20 yards line. This gave Arizona breathing room on defensive and forced a struggle for Seattle on offense.

So the Cardinals are the underdog despite having the NFLs best record of 9-1? Madden would like to disagree. We’ll see you on Sunday as we put our full confidence in the Cardinals, and in Madden this week as well.