Well, the Arizona Cardinals are back in losing territory. After last week's exciting win against the Cowboys in Dallas, some hoped the Cardinals could beat the injured Seahawks in Seattle.

Instead, a banged-up Seahawks squad beat Arizona 17- 3.

4 main takeaways after this ugly showing by the Cardinals:

Different quarterback, same first half outcome

A major negative theme for the Cardinals this season has been slow starts in the first two quarters. Most of their points this season have come late, often when the game is already out of reach. 

With Gardner Minshew starting at quarterback this week, there was hope that maybe Arizona's offense could start hot. After all, Minshew did look very good last week against the Dallas Cowboys. However, that wasn't the case, as the Cardinals could muster only three defensive points before halftime in Seattle.

Now, to be fair, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald is one of the league's better defense-minded coaches. However, Seattle’s had some mediocre to poor outings this season.

Out of Arizona's six first-half drives, three were three-and-outs. Even with a different quarterback at the helm, the Cardinals still struggled early. This is a coaching problem, and this staff needs to fix it quickly.

The Cardinals' defensive line could not take advantage of Seattle's offensive line

This year, Seattle's offensive line has been a huge issue. It is one of the main reasons the Seahawks aren't leading the NFC West. Last week, the Seahawks traded for All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson. However, Nelson was out this week due to injury — and even without Nelson, Arizona couldn't generate any pressure against Seattle.

The Cardinals did not record a single sack on Drew Lock. Yes, that is right, not even one. Sure, Lock has solid pocket presence, but not getting a sack against a very so-so offensive line is a bad sign for Arizona.

Sacks aren't the only metric for measuring pressure, though. Lock had an overall clean game passing the ball as he did not have an interception. Whatever metric you use to measure pressure, the Cardinals couldn't get any.

The NFC West has the Cardinals number

After Seattle's win, Macdonald improves to 6-0 against Arizona. He hasn't lost to the Cardinals in three season while Arizona is now 0-11 against the Seahawks dating back to 2021.

Against opposing NFC West coaches in Kyle Shanahan of the San Fransico 49ers, Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams, and MacDonald, they are a collective 32-13 against Arizona. Yes, you could argue these are three of the five best coaches in the NFL, but division games are meant to be closer due to familiarity.

Arizona's poor track record against division opponents points to an organizational issue.

Arizona's tackling did improve

Earlier in the year, the Cardinals' defense struggled to bring opposing players down on first contact. However, this issue seems to be dissipating. Against the Seahawks, the Cardinals did not allow a whole ton of yards after contact.

A good example came early in the game when Arizona cornerback Denzel Burke tackled Seattle superstar wide receiver Jaxson Smith-Njigba in the open field to stop a potential big play. Smith-Njigba has been deadly after the catch this year, turning several simple catches into explosives, and tackling has been a prior weakness for the Cardinals.

It wasn't just Burke who made great tackles; the Cardinals defense stepped up as a whole on that front. If this is an element of their game that they can build upon, that would be a huge positive.