Trey McBride's eyeblack was smeared on his face. The tight end had a fantastic game – his 12 catches a franchise record for the position, to go with 133 yards – and he was often the only reason the Cardinals' offense was able to do much of anything on Sunday in Seattle.

But he was frustrated, and a glance in his direction from a reporter only gained a shaking of the head, a non-verbal pass at trying to explain how the loss to the Seahawks got so twisted.

Sunday was hard for the Cardinals. The NFC West is a jumble, and the Cardinals are still right in the middle of that jumble. They will remain there regardless of what happens next week in Minnesota, although that is still a crucial game. The Cardinals get another chance at the Seahawks, at home, in two weeks and that could disinfect some of the bad that came with the 16-6 decision.

The game, though, was a reminder of how hard the Cardinals are still going to have to work to get what they want out of this season. As good as the defense played, for instance, it was a matter of inches – whether it was the inches to which Kyzir White couldn't quite close his hands under what could've been a game-changing fourth-quarter interception, or the inches rookie Xavier Thomas missed a sixth Geno Smith sack later that same drive as Smith completed a huge pass out of trouble.

Frankly, it was hard to go nitpicking the defense in the end, since it played really well and the offense simply didn't do enough. Nobody on defense would say that, of course, but guys on offense did.

What'll be interesting for this offense is that next up is the defensive wit and wisdom of Brian Flores, the one-time Cardinals coaching interviewee who can make life tough for anyone trying to score points. Flores, the Vikings defensive coordinator, will have some things prepared.

The Cardinals need to make sure they find their footing in practice this week and get back to the balance they had shown so much of late.

-- Gannon was lamenting his mistakes on the defensive side of the ball. He said he asked coordinator Nick Rallis to keep it a "tight menu" against Smith; in hindsight, he said he should've had "a couple more bullets" ready for the playbook.

-- The 16 points allowed were the fewest the Cardinals had allowed in a loss since Week 3 in 2018 in a home game against the Bears. Again, the defense was really good.

-- Kyler Murray visited the blue medical tent in the fourth quarter, but Gannon said it was for a concussion check called down from the independent spotter and that Murray was fine, only having the wind knocked out of him.

-- McBride was so good and there is good reason the passing game should ride him.

-- After the Cardinals got the Garrett Williams end-zone interception, they did go down the field and score a field goal, although it was the first time this season they did not convert a touchdown in a goal-to-go opportunity. The Cardinals are now 16-for-17 in that stat.

-- For the season, the Cardinals have created 12 takeaways but have scored only one touchdown and five field goals after those turnovers.

-- Michael Wilson had a ridiculous over the head catch for 30 yards to set up the Cardinals' final field goal. Wasn't enough but it provided a big play on a day when there were few on offense.

-- Murray came into the game with a completion streak at 17 and ran it to 20 before finally having a throw to tight end Elijah Higgins fall incomplete. Murray had already broken the franchise-record of 16 straight last week so he just extended his mark.

-- Defensive end L.J. Collier promised that his first game against his former team at his former home – he missed both meetings last season after suffering a season-ending biceps injury – but it was still meaningful. Collier got a sack of Geno Smith in the first half and nearly had a second.

"We didn't win, and at the end of the day that's all that matters," Collier said. "At the end of the fourth, when the zero-zeros go by, you just want the dub."

-- Jonah Williams was back on the field at right tackle. It wasn't the best day for the offensive line overall. "We couldn't get the run game going, and that falls on all of us," Williams said. "It makes it harder when you are in obvious passing downs. I feel like we were behind the sticks a lot."

-- The Seahawks looked like they would have a touchdown in the first half when Murray's arm was hit on a pass and the Seahawks picked up the ball and ran it into the end zone with the Cardinals assuming it was incomplete and letting the runback happen. Replay ended up overturning the call to an incompletion, but it could have been a problem given that the original call was a fumble.

-- Seahawks defensive lineman Leonard Williams, a former first-round pick, was dominant. "I thought he wrecked the game," Gannon said, high praise from a coach who usually doesn't single out players for such things. Williams had 2.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, a pass defensed and six tackles.

-- The Cardinals are really good when James Conner hits 100 scrimmage yards, but he had only 49 -- and 41 were receiving -- and that's a correlation that seems accurate. It was weird seeing the Cardinals have so much trouble getting Conner going on the ground.

-- Zaven Collins played well, and his sack gave him a career-best 4.0 this season. Dante Stills had a sack, giving him a career-best 5.5 this season, and Jesse Luketa's sack put his career-best total at 3.0.

That's all. Time to fly home.