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Game at a glance

A recap of the Seahawks’ 31-20 loss to the Cardinals in Arizona on Sunday:

PLAYER OF THE GAME
Justin Forsett. Normally, this goes to a player on the winning team, and the Cardinals had no shortage of candidates – Beanie Wells, who scored twice while rushing for 85 yards; Kurt Warner, who hit the 200 mark for his career by passing for two touchdowns; Clark Haggans, who got to Seahawks QB Matt Hasselbeck for a couple of sacks; Ben Graham, who repeatedly punted the Seahawks into poor field position while averaging 52.0 yards on seven punts.

But Forsett, the Seahawks’ second-year running back, gets the nod on style points.

First, when leading rusher Julius Jones was knocked out of the game with a broken rib in the first quarter, it was up to Forsett to carry the load in the running game – and do it against a Cardinals defense that had limited the Seahawks to a franchise-record low 14 rushing yards in the team’s Week 6 game in Seattle.

Forsett responded, and then some, by carrying 17 times for 123 yards and a TD.

PLAYS OF THE GAME
Offense: Wells’ second touchdown, which gave the Cardinals their first lead – 24-20. The Seahawks had two shots at bringing him down on a 13-yard scoring run, but each time Wells spun away and kept heading to the end zone.

Defense: Fourth-and-goal from the Seahawks’ 1-yard line in the first quarter. The Cardinals sent 228-pound Tim Hightower to the right side. But instead of the goal line, the Cardinals’ leading rusher found the Seahawks’ duo of cornerback Marcus Trufant, who hit him low; and linebacker Leroy Hill, who hit him high. The offense used the momentum gained from the defensive stand to drive 99 yards for the Seahawks’ first touchdown – on Forsett’s 11-yard run.

Special teams: Graham’s 51-yard punt that was downed at the Seahawks’ 1-yard line.

PREGAME MOMENT
Was that Chris Spencer making snaps with his left hand in warm-ups? Yes. The Seahawks’ center broke the tip of his right thumb in practice on Wednesday, so the right-hander had to snap with his other hand the entire game.

“It helped that it happened on Wednesday,” Spencer said. “That way I snapped left-handed in a practice all week, so I was used to it.”

IN-GAME MOMENT
Penalty flags littered the field throughout the game. The Cardinals were penalized 11 times for 136 wrong-way yards, while the Seahawks were flagged nine times for 113 penalty yards.

POST-GAME MOMENT
T.J. Houshmandzadeh did plenty of talking with his actions during the game, catching nine passes for 165 yards. But in the locker room, he also had something to say: “If we come with this type of effort and just eliminate the little mistakes, I don’t think we’ll lose again. I don’t see anybody on our schedule that can beat us. Not in my eyes. Not if we play the way we just played.”

INJURY REPORT
Jones did not return to the game after breaking a rib, or to Seattle with the team tonight. Jones was kept overnight in a Phoenix-area hospital. Coach Jim Mora said it was a precautionary measure.

Cornerback Josh Wilson was knocked out of the game in the second quarter with a head injury. But he returned and finished second on the team with seven tackles.

YOU DON’T SAY
“We’ll be better. We’re going to keep getting better. I thought today – even though we lost, we came here to get a win and we didn’t win – offensively I think we feel better about what we’re doing. I think we’re turning the corner in some of the things we’ve been trying to turn the corner with.” – Hasselbeck