Arizona Cardinals vs. Seattle Seahawks: What's the Game Plan for Seattle?

The Seattle Seahawks look to defend CenturyLink Field from the visiting Arizona Cardinals in an important divisional showdown in prime time this Sunday night.

This is a high-intensity matchup. Both teams are rested and prepared coming off of bye weeks.

For the Seahawks, the playoffs could be on the line. As for the Cardinals, they'll look to prove that they are the rightful team atop the division. Shanel Pratap of Global News provided potential postseason implications:

With that being said, let's get into what the Seahawks need to do on Sunday to carve out a huge win.

Offensive Game Plan

At a glance, the winning formula for Seattle's offense is simple: Run the football hard, and pass it to tight end Jimmy Graham when needed. 

So far this season, the Seahawks have only been good at one of those things. But head coach Pete Carroll and the rest of his staff will have the team prepared to grind out first downs and keep Arizona's offense off the field—a key component to a winning game plan.

With ESPN's Sheil Kapadia reporting that running back Marshawn Lynch is nursing an abdominal injury, the Seahawks will likely rotate rookie runner Thomas Rawls into the mix on Sunday night. Lynch is officially listed as questionable on the team's updated injury report.

Seattle fans aren't dismayed at the idea of that, seeing as the undrafted free agent has averaged 5.4 yards per carry this season in only three starts. Check out the video in the following tweet for a reminder of what he brings to the table:

The Seahawks might try putting both Rawls and Lynch in the backfield at the same time to provide quarterback Russell Wilson with extra blocking and checkdown options in the passing game. 

Wilson has been bad under pressure this season—when blitzed, Wilson is averaging only 5.03 yards per dropback, per Kapadia. That stat ranks him 26th in that category. 

With that being said, it'll be important for the Seahawks to have an arsenal of short, quick pass plays against the Cardinals, who blitz on 44 percent of pass plays, according to ESPN Stats & Info (via Kapadia). It will allow Wilson to get into a rhythm and avoid being sacked—in theory, at least.

Graham could have a huge day against the Cardinals. In 2014, Seattle's tight ends, especially Luke Willson, torched Arizona. He caught three passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns in the two teams' second contest of the season, which was a 35-6 Seattle win. 

Graham's role in the Seattle offense has increased in recent games. He was targeted 12 times against the Carolina Panthers and 10 times against the Dallas Cowboys. Those numbers should continue to increase this season, and it'll start against the Cardinals.

A touchdown, especially in the red zone, would also help the Seahawks greatly. Graham hasn't scored since a Week 3 victory against the Chicago Bears on the following play:

The Seahawks must commit to targeting Graham consistently Sunday night to make the Cardinals defense respect the threat he brings to the table. 

Defensive Game Plan

There are two focuses here for the Seahawks to contain the NFL's second-best scoring offense on Sunday night: Contain the rejuvenated Chris Johnson, and protect against big pass plays.

And the Seahawks are poised to do both this Sunday night at home.

Seattle has been stout against the run this season, limiting opponents to just 3.8 yards per carry and six rushing touchdowns. Half of those scores came in the narrow loss to Carolina.

The Seahawks have only allowed two runs of 20 or more yards and zero runs of 40 or more yards. The front seven of Seattle has mostly fired on all cylinders so far this season.

But, as the following infographic shows, keeping opponents to less than 100 yards rushing has been a key factor this season for the Seahawks. They've lost three of four games this season when allowing 100 or more rushing yards.

The games against the St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys in Week 1 and Week 8, respectively, have been the only exceptions: 

Graphic created by the author using Piktochart with stats taken from Pro-Football-Reference.com.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Cardinals have rushed for less than 100 yards only once this season. The effectiveness of the Cardinals ground attack will be a deciding factor in this matchup. Johnson is averaging 4.8 yards per carry and has totaled 676 rushing yards, which ranks third in the NFL.

The Seahawks defense must also eliminate big plays from the Cardinals passing offense. Quarterback Carson Palmer has 20 touchdowns on the season, and Arizona has 37 passing plays of 20 or more yards—you'd better believe they will attack the Seahawks deep early and often.

The good news for Seattle on this front is that its defensive line is playing well against the pass this season. Bruce Irvin and Cliff Avril have combined for eight sacks, and Michael Bennett has 6.5 sacks to his name in 2015. 

By having an effective four-man rush, the Seahawks can drop more defensive backs to better cover the Cardinals receivers, five of whom are averaging at least 15 yards per reception this season. 

The 12th Man just hopes the Legion of Boom doesn't get confused in big spots at the end of games, as was the case against the Cincinnati Bengals and Panthers.

Key Players and Matchups

Larry Fitzgerald vs. Richard Sherman

Palmer has made wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald look young again in 2015. The journeyman wideout is Arizona's No. 1 receiver by a wide margin this season in terms of targets, receptions, yards and touchdowns. 

Take a peek at the following infographic to see just how big of a factor Fitzgerald has been for Arizona this season compared to the team's next-leading receiver, John Brown:

Graphic created by the author using Piktochart with stats taken from Pro-Football-Reference.com.

This will be one of the more fun matchups to watch this Sunday night. Both Sherman and Fitzgerald play tough, physical football. 

Here's a clip that symbolizes their relationship on the field:

Jimmy Graham vs. Tyrann Mathieu

Tyrann Mathieu is having the best season of his career. Through eight games, the Honey Badger has 42 tackles, two picks (one returned for a score) and a forced fumble. He also has nine passes defensed, matching his previous career high.

Mathieu's coverage of Graham is undoubtedly one of the more intriguing matchups of this contest. Mathieu recently told Pro Football Talk that he expected more Graham in the Seattle offense this season:

Us, too, Tyrann. But as was written above, that's all about to change. There's no way that getting a heavier dosage of Graham on offense wasn't part of the team's Week 9 bye agenda. He will be a focal point of this offense going forward.

On paper, Mathieu versus Graham is a lopsided matchup—Mathieu stands at 5'9", while Graham is 6'7". Because of this, Wilson needs to give Graham all the chances he can when he is single-covered by Mathieu. 

Effectively exploiting this matchup is key to a Seattle winning game plan.

Prediction: Seahawks 23, Cardinals 20 

Stephen Brashear/Associated Press

The Cardinals enter Sunday night's game as one of the most explosive teams in the league. Yet, it's the Seahawks' toughness and coaching that will make them winners this week.

Carroll has an almost Tom Coughlin-like way of getting the most out of his players when it really matters, and, for the Seahawks, this Sunday is the most important game of the season. Expect them to come out and play sound, physical football and end up with their 10th straight prime-time win at home.

Yes, you read that right—Seattle has won nine straight home games in prime time heading into Sunday night's contest since Carroll took over as coach. Under his leadership, they've been literally unbeatable at CenturyLink Field on national Sunday night TV.

Both defenses will force an interception from their opponents in this one, but the Seahawks will play better defense throughout the game. This will set up opportunities for rookie wideout Tyler Lockett to flash his ability on special teams. This week's X-factor will, at the minimum, help Seattle move into scoring position at least once.

The combination of Lynch and Rawls running the football will eventually wear down the Cardinals defense, opening up opportunities for Graham to shine in the most important contest so far in 2015. Wilson will finish with about 200 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. 

The postseason is on the line for Seattle this weekend, and the Seahawks know it—and it's why they will win this Sunday night slugfest by three.

Follow Ethan on Twitter @ebai_today for Seahawks game-day coverage and musings about the NFL.