Is it possible to get on a streak of making unreal catches as a receiver? Debatable. Yet that's what it feels like with Michael Wilson, who twice hauled in highlight-level receptions in Minnesota after making a jaw-dropping over-the-head catch in Seattle the week before.
"Every player across all sports, sometimes if you ask them to repeat a play and do it again, I'm not sure I'd be able to do it again," Wilson said. "Specifically, like, the Seattle one. I surprised myself on that play."
While Trey McBride has become Kyler Murray's go-to guy, the production from the Cardinals' wide receiving corps has fluctuated. Everyone talks about Marvin Harrison Jr., and understandably so, and the rookie is still trying to find consistency in his chemistry with Murray. It's also been noted that Next Gen Stats has both Harrison and Wilson with small separation numbers when it comes to getting open each play.
That will lead to contested catches. Wilson has shown out on those of late.
"You just trust the guy," Murray said. "You see him make those plays over and over again. Not that I want to be throwing him into hits. He's very capable of making all those types of catches."
No, receivers can't really practice the play Wilson made in Minnesota where the ball was tipped over the middle and he managed to find it and haul it in with one hand. But, Wilson said, a player can work on the confidence he will catch the ball every time regardless of circumstances.
"Just like Steph Curry making crazy shots – and I'm not comparing myself to Steph Curry – practice can only do so much … but if your mind and your body works on the confidence of seeing you catch the ball, hard catches become easier. You're deciding to yourself, 'I'm not dropping this ball.'
"I'll be surprised I made the play, but if I didn't make the play, there is the other side of me that would be like, 'Bro, I should've made that play.'"
-- Here we are with a titanic tilt between the Cardinals and Seahawks. There have been a few of these over the years. The Rams are still lurking in the division race – it feels like the 49ers won't have the juice to be in the mix – but realistically the winner of this game Sunday controls everything. How's that for drama.
-- Rookie defensive lineman Darius Robinson played 22 snaps in his debut in a limited game plan. He lamented after the game he didn't play well enough but said during the week he was optimistic because he saw what needed to be changed when watching the video and was confident it was a quick fix.
"I think he's going to take a big jump," Gannon said on "Cardinals Game Plan," his weekly TV show. "Handcuffs will be off. Handcuffs will be off."
-- The Cardinals will hold a toy drive on Sunday, when Cardinals cheerleaders will be joined by volunteers from Desert Financial Credit Union and The Foster Alliance will collect new, unwrapped toys and donations at State Farm Stadium security checkpoints.
-- Tight end Trey McBride has had a good week, first with his second straight 12-catch game in Minnesota and then being named the Cardinals’ nominee for Walter Payton Man of the Year. His future continues to trend up, even after making a big jump last season. Gannon said it has been McBride's route details that have been the most impressive this season, the nuanced step forward that has taken McBride's game up another notch.
-- McBride needs nine receptions to break his own franchise record for tight ends of 81 catches in a season.
-- After the Minnesota game, center Hjalte Froholdt did an interview with a Danish media team that wanted to talk to the biggest NFL name in Froholdt's home country of Denmark.
"Sports in Denmark is trying to show, and not trying to pat myself too much on the back here, what I am doing is something that's never been done before," Froholdt said. "There is one person that has done it, (kicker) Morten Andersen, who is the GOAT of Danish football, 25 years in the league and Hall of Famer, so it's different. For what I am doing, it's not happened before. But football isn't a big sport (there), so it isn't noticed as much. They are really big into handball.
"Big things are coming for the sport in Demark so I'm happy to be the ambassador."
-- If the Cardinals beat the Seahawks, they will have won four straight at home for the first time since the magical 2015 season.
-- There are multi-factors involved, not the least of which that the Cardinals have a whole new offense in which Kyler Murray is operating, but it's interesting to note that this season Murray is averaging 4.6 rush attempts per game, while he averaged 6.7 per game prior to his ACL injury.
-- The Cardinals ramped up their blitzing some against the Vikings, doing it 25.6 percent of the time according to Next Gen Stats, as opposed to the season rate for DC Nick Rallis of 24.2 percent. Interestingly, the Cardinals only blitzed 18.9 percent of the time in the first meeting with the Seahawks.
And then you talk to safety Budda Baker and his blitzing – which seems like it has been an effective tool for the Pro Bowler – and maybe it's not as much as we thought.
"You guys might think it's a blitz," Baker said. "Sometimes it is a blitz, it all depends on our rules and executing the gameplan. Some pressures might look like pressures, and some things are not.
"You see the sacks, you see the TFLs, it all goes to executing our game plan and doing our job. … I love this defense. Everyone is so selfless."
-- However the defense is doing it, they are allowing just 17 points a game at home – and that is including the 42 surrendered to the Commanders in Week 4.
-- The last word goes to Kyler Murray, with an apropos comment on the state of the Cardinals season:
"The great teams find a way to win those one-score games. That's what the league comes down to. It's very close. There aren't any teams that you can look at and be like, 'Oh, they're just a terrible football team.' I think any given Sunday, they say that for a reason."
See you Sunday.