National Football League

Seahawks beat Cards 22-10 to take NFC West lead

Published Oct. 25, 2010 5:21 a.m. ET

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Max Hall talked about his excitement over making his first road start against a division rival.

Arizona's rookie quarterback left Qwest Field Sunday feeling woozy and a little nauseous, and not just from looking at his ugly passer rating against Seattle.

''I am obviously disappointed in how I played,'' Hall said. ''But you have to give credit to them. They played well.''

Olindo Mare kicked five field goals, Matt Hasselbeck threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Mike Williams and the Seahawks took over first place in the NFC West with a 22-10 win over the Cardinals.

Hall watched most of the second half from the sideline, thanks to a blindside sack from Seattle's Chris Clemons that caused a fumble early in the second half at the Arizona 11 and led to one of Mare's field goals.

It capped a miserable day for Hall, who connected on only 4 of his 16 passes for 34 yards and floated an easy interception that Seattle rookie Earl Thomas easily ran under in the first quarter. Hall missed on eight of his first nine throws and only once connected with star receiver Larry Fitzgerald. He finished with a 13.5 passer rating.

''Let's be frank, you understand with a young quarterback in this type of environment there is a chance you are going to have to learn and grow some of those things, and we understood that,'' Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt said. ''And I thought we had a good run planning today. I wish we could have continued to use that because we had some success there at points. We got it going and then we turned it over, it's just very tough to overcome the turnovers we had today.''

Seattle (4-2) received five gifts from the Cardinals, including three that came deep in Arizona's end. The only reason the score wasn't more lopsided was Seattle's struggles converting, whether it was key penalties or poor decisions.

That put most of the responsibility on Mare's steady right leg. He ran his consecutive field goals streak to 30 with makes of 20, 31, 51, 24 and 26 yards.

Mare made nine field goals, but only five counted thanks to a trio of Seattle penalties and one on Arizona that took makes off the board. His 51-yarder in the third quarter started out as a 31-yard kick only to be backed up twice by holding calls on Cameron Morrah.

Seattle's only offensive touchdown came on a 2-yard back-shoulder throw from Hasselbeck to Williams in the second quarter after the Seahawks took over at the Arizona 2 following a muffed punt.

''We didn't capitalize on red zone opportunities like we need to with touchdowns,'' Hasselbeck said. ''Luckily, Olindo is just automatic.''

Hasselbeck threw for 192 yards and avoided throwing an interception for the second straight week. Coming off a career day, Williams topped himself with 11 catches for 87 yards and his first touchdown since 2006. In his second game since arriving in a trade with Buffalo, Marshawn Lynch carried 24 times for 89 yards. He had 39 yards in runs brought back on holding calls against Seattle right tackle Sean Locklear.

Arizona's running duo of Tim Hightower and Beanie Wells combined for 113 yards, the most allowed by Seattle's defense this season. Wells scored Arizona's only touchdown on a 2-yard run, but Hightower contributed to the Cardinals turnover woes. His fumble at the Seattle 28 ended one promising drive. After Arizona's defense held, rookie Andre Roberts muffed a punt. The ensuing scrum ended with Seattle's Roy Lewis falling on the rolling ball at the Arizona 2.

Hasselbeck then hit Williams for a 10-0 lead.

Arizona had another special teams miscue in the second half when Jason Wright booted a skipping kick and Kennard Cox dived on the loose ball, leading to another Mare kick.

''Our defense you really have to tip your hat to those guys they really played hard and kept us in the game,'' said Fitzgerald, who had just three catches for 30 yards after grabbing 13 passes in Seattle last year. ''Offensively we just didn't capitalize on some chances we had out there.''

In a week of heightened awareness on big hits, Clemons' sack looked like a legal shot to Hall's back. Seattle's Raheem Brock had a form tackle sack on Hall in the first half, while Arizona cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie chose to lay a shoulder into Brandon Stokley after a first-half reception.

''The main thing is that you really can't let that slow you down,'' Rodgers-Cromartie said. ''So, it really wasn't a factor.''