Weekend Picks

Seahawks -7 over Cardinals - Payback time for the Hawks in Seattle this weekend. The loss in September to Arizona remains the only division defeat for Seattle this season. This Arizona team will look quite a bit different than the one that beat the Hawks. Veteran QB Kurt Warner has taken over for Matt Leinart and both of the Cardinals' star receivers may miss Sunday's game due to injury. If both Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin due miss the game and the Seahawks continue to get to the QB like they have been, then Warner could be in for a long day. Between the injuries for Arizona and the Hawks being at home, that doesn't leave much room for error for the Cardinals.

Seahawks can win if: They shutdown Edgerrin James - James had 120+ yards in the first game - and force Arizona into throwing situations. Then the D-line has to get pressure on Warner and force him to throw quickly to his depleted receiving corps. On offense Seattle needs to fix the protection problems they always seem to have early in the game. Seattle 27, Arizona 14

Quick Husky football note: Now that Tyrone Willingham is staying as coach I want to move on and stop that debate like most people do. I just wanted to add one quick note in his defense. A lot of Willingham supporters pointed to the fact that the players on the field weren't his players. I went ahead and ran down the depth chart to see if the numbers really did bear that out. On offense, a look at the starters and key reserves shows 20 players in all and seven of them were brought in by Willingham. On defense I counted 17 players who either started or played key roles at some point during the season and eight of them were recruited by Willingham. Add in the fact that Willingham's first recruiting class came after a 1-10 season and him being hired in December and it looks like you simply can't blame Willingham for the talent on the field. Now if you have a problem with his coaching style and game management then that is a completely different story. But most people I'm sure would first point to a lack of talent for the reason why the Huskies have performed so poorly the last few years. Next year's team will be made up almost entirely of Willingham players and if recruiting analysts have been accurate about his classes, then the Huskies should be a much better team.