Seahawks Only Need Half an Effort

For one half, Mike Holmgren must have thought he was watching his glorious old Green Bay Packers, not his sputtering Seattle Seahawks.

A methodical first-half manhandling of the Arizona Cardinals was more than enough to send the Seahawks to a 27-6 victory on Sunday.

Passing the ball and running the ball effectively, the Seahawks scored on all five possessions in the first half. Matt Hasselbeck completed 23 of 31 passes for 260 yards -- four yards shy of the career best he set a week ago against Washington.

Neither team scored in the second half, when Arizona fumbled the ball away three times inside the Seattle 10. “It was ugly,” Arizona’s Jake Plummer said. “It just kept getting worse and worse.”

Marcel Shipp fumbled after Arizona had reached the one- and five-yard line in the third quarter. Both were recovered by linebacker Marcus Bell -- who grew up in tiny St. Johns, Ariz. Plummer fumbled a bad snap from backup center Jason Starkey at the Seahawks’ eight with 7:30 to go in the fourth.

Seattle (3-6), last in the NFL in rushing defense at 173 yards a game, held Arizona (4-5) to 111 on the ground, 29 in the first half. Thomas Jones, who rushed for 174 yards in Arizona’s 24-13 victory over Seattle in Week 2, had only 24 yards in 11 carries.

All the Cardinals -- heartily booed throughout by a crowd of 29,252 in 73,000-seat Sun Devil Stadium -- could manage were field goals of 40 and 27 yards by Bill Gramatica.