Seahawks Notebook | In the NFC West, third definitely not the charm

GLENDALE, Ariz. — With a victory in Week 2, the Seahawks could have shared first place in the NFC West with the San Francisco 49ers, winners on Sunday at St. Louis.

Instead the Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals are 1-1, and the Cardinals technically hold second place because of a division victory over Seattle. The victories for the 49ers and Cardinals served notice to the Seahawks, the three-time division champions, that winning the West is going to be a challenge.

"It's a division opponent, that's the hardest thing about it," linebacker Julian Peterson said of the Seahawks' defeat. "It wasn't so much the loss. Obviously you want to win all the games but eventually you're going to lose. But they're second in the division and we're third, which is crazy."

The Seahawks showed respect for the Cardinals but blamed their lack of execution for losing.

"I think they are obviously getting better," Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. "We just missed opportunities and we didn't play our best. As these teams get better, you can't do that, especially on the road."

Defense struggles

Like the Seahawks' offense, the defense turned things around in the second half. Still, it couldn't stop Cardinals running back Edgerrin James in the closing seconds as Arizona got in position to kick the winning field goal.

James rushed for 128 yards and quarterback Matt Leinart was far better than his lackluster 14-for-28, 102-yard effort at San Francisco in Week 1.

Leinart passed for 299 yards and completed 23 of 37 passes.

"Obviously we've got a lot of things we're going to look to correct [Monday]," safety Brian Russell said, citing the touchdown pass from Leinart to tight end Leonard Pope in the second quarter when the Seahawks were stacked to defend the run on third-and-one and no one was in position to stop Pope on his 30-yard score.

"We have to disrupt him [the quarterback] as much as we can. We have to stop the run better than we did. Stop the pass better than we did. We've got a big test next week [against Cincinnati] and we're going to play these guys again, so we need to be ready for that test as well."

The Seahawks allowed 431 yards of total offense compared to only 284 last Sunday.

Quartet makes debut

Defensive tackle Ellis Wyms and running back Alvin Pearman made their Seahawks debuts Sunday, the first action for the two since they were acquired earlier this month. Wyms and Pearman were inactive last week.

Pearman split time with Leonard Weaver in limited action in place of injured backup running back Maurice Morris, who was inactive. He lined up as a receiver and played special teams.

Defensive end Baraka Atkins, a rookie fourth-round draft choice, also played in a regular-season game for the first time and was credited with a solo tackle. Another rookie, wide receiver Courtney Taylor, was pressed into service for the first time because of injuries to receivers D.J. Hackett and Ben Obomanu, who did not dress. Taylor made his first NFL catch in the fourth quarter, for 6 yards.

Taylor said he called friends and family to tell them he was playing.

"I was pumped up and ready to go," he said.

Tatupu's big day

Seahawks middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu led both teams in tackles with 12, 11 of them solo. He also picked off a pass from his old USC pal, Arizona quarterback Matt Leinart, in the third quarter.

In a subdued locker room, Tatupu had little to say about his performance.

"Not today," Tatupu said when asked to talk. "It wasn't enough."

Brown's buddy wins it

Seahawks kicker Josh Brown was expecting to get on the field to kick the winner. Instead he watched as his team fumbled his chance away.

He also saw his Cardinals counterpart and friend, Neil Rackers, hit the winning kick from 42 yards out with one second left.

"It was a pretty emotional thing for him having missed that one last year against the Bears," Brown said. "You win some, you lose some."

Rackers pointed out that the kick Sunday was roughly the same distance and from the same left hash mark where he missed a kick that would have won it for the Cardinals in their epic collapse on "Monday Night Football" last season against Chicago.

"I've kicked about 500 of those this offseason," Rackers said. "I wanted to run out of the stadium but there was a second left, so I had to kick off."

Notes

• Nate Burleson had a 24-yard touchdown catch, his second score in the past two games at Arizona.

• Kevin Bentley started at outside linebacker in place of the injured Leroy Hill, who was inactive. Bentley had four total tackles.

• Three Seahawks dropped passes — TE Marcus Pollard and WRs Bobby Engram and Deion Branch.