Josh Weinfuss, ESPN Staff Writer 7y

Cardinals taking three straight losses at home to Seahawks 'personal'

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Sunday night’s game against the Seattle Seahawks may end up going a long way in deciding the Arizona Cardinals’ playoff fate. But in order for it to have an impact in January, the Cardinals must first end a drought in October.

They haven’t beaten the Seahawks at home since coach Bruce Arians took over in 2013.

“It’s personal,” safety Tyrann Mathieu said. “We just got to take pride in it. We got to take it as a challenge. We got to understand that they’re going to come in here and try to punch us in our mouth, and we got to be ready for them.”

Only the first of the three meetings under Arians was relatively close. In 2013, Arizona lost 34-22. The Cardinals lost the last two 35-6 and 36-6, respectively.

For Arians, there’s been a common thread linking all three losses. “They beat the s--- out of us,” he quipped.

Immediately after beating the New York Jets on Monday night, Arizona All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson brought up the Seahawks drought in his postgame speech. He reminded his teammates to keep that on their mind this week. It was already there.

Peterson was at a rare loss for words when asked why Arizona can’t beat Seattle at home. “Honestly, I don’t know how to answer that question,” he said. “I don’t know what it is once we play at home against Seattle. I don’t know if it’s late in the year. There’s no excuse. I just don’t know what always tends to happen in those ballgames.

“This is a new year, and we’re looking to definitely change the page in that chapter.”

A win for the Cardinals would change more than the chapter.

While it may read October on the calendar, the result Sunday night will be felt in January. A win, and the Cardinals pull within a game of the Seahawks and remain in contention for a playoff run and a shot at winning the NFC West. A loss, however, and the Cardinals will have taken a large step closer to planning vacations for the week after New Year’s.

While the importance of Sunday’s game is understood throughout the Cardinals locker room, how the game impacts Arizona’s playoff hopes is a topic some don’t want to touch with a 10-foot pole.

“It’s too early,” quarterback Carson Palmer said. “We’re not even halfway home yet. The game is extremely important to us. We realize how important it is. Worry about seeds and home-field advantage and all those things -- obviously you want to play at home in the playoffs, but it’s too early to be focused on that. This game’s too important. We’ve got to get past this one. Then we’ll move on to the next.”

But is it too early?

Peterson believes the division race, even though the Cardinals and Rams are tied for second place at 3-3, will come down to the Cards and Seahawks. That’ll likely happen only if Arizona wins Sunday night.

According to the ESPN NFL Football Power Index, another loss to Seattle at home would drop Arizona’s chance of making the playoffs to 34 percent. A win would raise it to 65 percent.

“We definitely don’t want to be three behind in the division,” Peterson said. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s going to come down to. We lose, we fall back three games to the division leader, and that’s a deep hole. Although a lot of football is left, at the end of the day, we don’t want to put ourselves in that type of predicament.

“If we fall into that type of predicament, we have to fight ourselves out.”

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