Cardinal Victory Is Quite a Rush

Arizona’s Thomas Jones knew the weaknesses of the Seattle defense.

Jones ran for a career-high 173 yards and MarTay Jenkins had a 95-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter as the Cardinals rallied to beat the Seahawks, 24-13, Sunday.

It was the second consecutive 100-yard rushing performance given up by Seattle (0-2). Charlie Garner had 127 in Oakland’s 31-17 opening-week victory.

“We watched the Raiders game,” Jones said. “Charlie Garner and the other running backs all had a good game. We thought we could do some good things against them because of the size of our offensive line.”

The Cardinals (1-1) won the first regular-season game at $430-million Seahawks Stadium, and they handed Seahawk quarterback Trent Dilfer his first loss as a starter in 16 games, ending a remarkable streak that included Baltimore’s victory in the Super Bowl two years ago.

“It’s been a while, but I never got too caught up in that,” said Dilfer, who returned after being sidelined five weeks because of a sprained right knee.

“There were a lot of games in there that were like today. It gets to the fourth quarter, and the team I was on was able to make a play. We didn’t do that today.”

Dilfer was 29 for 47 for a career-best 352 yards and a touchdown, but he slowed down in the second half after Seattle built a 10-3 lead at halftime. His last loss as a starter came when the Ravens were beaten by Pittsburgh on Oct. 29, 2000.

“Having Trent back clearly gives the offense a boost, but we have some young people in there,” Seattle Coach Mike Holmgren said. “When we had chances at plays, crazy things happened.”

Arizona’s Jake Plummer was 10 for 22 for 107 yards, and his four-yard touchdown pass to Frank Sanders with 3:18 to play sealed the victory.

Jones, meanwhile, had the first 100-yard rushing game of his three-year NFL career.

“Thomas was a byproduct of the way those offensive linemen were blocking,” Arizona Coach Dave McGinnis said. “He kept telling me on the sidelines he was going to break one.”