Both Marvin Harrison Jr. and Jaxon Smith-Njigba came up big in the second half of Week 4
When the Arizona Cardinals take the field for Sunday’s game in Seattle, it will have been 45 days since the Seahawks walked off in Glendale with a 23-20 victory on a 52-yard field goal as time expired.
That game featured standout performances by two first-round Ohio State wide receivers, at least in the second half.
After a brutal game the week before, Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., the fourth overall pick in the 2024 draft, looked no better in the first 30 minutes. He appeared lost and disinterested and had one catch on five targets for eight yards.
On the other sideline, 2023 first-round pick (20th overall) Jaxon Smith-Njigba seemed like an afterthought with no targets even though he had 22 receptions on 29 targets in the first three games of the season. Still, the Seahawks led 14-3.
The final two quarters produced a different story.
Harrison caught all five of his targets for 58 yards and spearheaded a fourth-quarter comeback that tied the game at 20-20 with 28 seconds remaining.
He had a 16-yard play that led to a field goal and made the score 17-6. Then, on second-and-goal from the 16, he snared a Kyler Murray pass for a touchdown, cutting the Seattle lead to 20-13.
On the Cardinals’ next possession, an 18-yard play on third-and-5 led to running back Emari Demercado’s 7-yard reception that tied the game after the extra point.
Unfortunately, Smith-Njigba one-upped him. He had 79 yards on four receptions (five targets), including a 36-yard play that put the Seahawks in position for a probable game-icing 53-yard goal that was missed with 3:16 remaining.
The big play came after Demercado’s score when kicker Chad Ryuland’s kickoff landed inches short of the landing zone and gave the ball to the Seahawks on the 40-yard line. On second-and-10, quarterback Sam Darnold connected with Smith-Njigba for 22 yards to the Cardinals 38, and after a 4-yard run, the field goal won it for Seattle.
The Cardinals played that game without cornerbacks Garrett Williams and Will Johnson. Williams is back from injured reserve, but Johnson will not play Sunday, as well as corner Max Melton. The pass-coverage group will be hard-pressed to stop Smith-Njigba, who leads the NFL with 948 receiving yards (118.5 per game, which is on pace for 2,015) and is fifth with 58 receptions (on 74 targets). He’s averaging 16.3 yards per catch and has four touchdowns.
The five targets against the Cardinals in Week 4 are the fewest he’s had this season. That game and a 96-yard afternoon against the Saints in Week 3 are the only games this season that he hasn’t reached 100 yards.
Darnold said, “He forces the defense to do certain things that they might not be super comfortable doing. We know Jax is going to find a way to catch the rock and get YAC the way he does.”
Explosive plays set him apart. Of his 58 receptions, 15 have totaled 20 yards or more with five of 40 or more with the latter totaling 242 yards (25.5 percent of his total).
Guard Grey Zabel said, “He just continues to find a way to do some crazy stuff out there. Especially when teams start to hone in on him and double-cover him, and he continues to do stuff. It’s just one of those deals of him being him.”
Some of that stuff includes:
- Being the first Seahawks receiver ever with four consecutive 100-yard games while already tying Hall of Famer Steve Largent with six 100-yard games in a season. In those four games, he has 32 receptions (eight in each one) for 546 yards (136.5 per game).
- On Sunday, he can become the fifth player all-time to total at least eight receptions and 100 yards in five consecutive games. One of those is former Cardinals receiver Anquan Boldin, who had five in 2005. Two are Hall of Famers: Isaac Bruce (six in 1995) and Calvin Johnson (five in 2012) with the other Michael Thomas (five in 2019).
- He became the second player under 25 years old to total at least 900 yards in the first eight games of a season. The other was Bruce. Smith-Njigba’s 948 are the most.
- For any age player, he can enter the top five in the Super Bowl era for most receiving yards after nine games. The leaders are Tyreek Hill (1,104 in 2022), Hill (1,076) in 2023), Bruce (1,073 in 1995), Justin Jefferson (1,060 in 2022) and Julio Jones (1,040) in 2018.
We’ll see soon enough if Harrison can keep up with his former teammate.
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