Cardinals vs Seahawks: Arizona's magic number is 20

The number 20. That is the magic number for the Arizona Cardinals.

Why?

16-0.

That is the record the Cardinals have when allowing no more than 20 points. Since the arrival of Bruce Arians, Todd Bowles and the rest of the staff, Arizona is 19-7. 16 of those wins come when giving up 20 points or less.

It tells us a couple of things.

One is that the offense has done okay. The other is that if the Cardinals give up more than that, the offense isn't really good enough to bail out the defense. They are 3-7 when they give up 21 or more points.

Those three wins were last season -- a 25-21 win over the Lions, a 27-24 win over the Texans and a 37-34 overtime victory over the Titans.

The significance?

They need to keep Seattle from scoring more than 20.

That won't be the easiest thing to do, as Seattle has scored over 20 points in eight of their 10 games this season. In one of the two games where it wasn't more than 20, they scored exactly 20.

Arizona has given up more than 20 points once this season -- in Denver.

Can the Arizona defense, which is number three against the run and has allowed less than 200 yards passing in four of the past five games, keep the Seahawks offense in check?

That is the big question as the Cardinals enter Week 12.