The moment was important at the time, even if the second half of Sunday's game against the Seahawks rendered it moot. In a tie game with 72 seconds left in the first half, Dewey Wingard and his merry band of defenders undercut Seattle running back Emanuel Wilson on fourth-and-goal at the Arizona 1.

It was the Cardinals' second fourth-and-goal stop in two games, after the Dante Stills sack on fourth down at the Arizona 3 the week before. That stop proved huge in a Cardinals win. Again, Sunday's not so much.

But it was meaningful for a group trying to make a statement.

"Nick (Rallis) has been talking about being clutch, and you look back on your life and those moments and it's like in those moments I stayed neutral, I trusted my training, read my key and did my job," Wingard said. "That's how those plays come to you. You don't sit there pre-snap and get scared. Because you've trained yourself for those moments.

"In those situations these first two games we bowed up and we've been gritty. That is one of the positives we can take away."

Coach Mike LaFleur said his defense was "made of the right stuff."

"I think we have men on defense," LaFleur said.

There was nearly a third goal-line stop. At the end of the game, the Seahawks pushed in a sneak from tight end A.J. Barner from the 1 on fourth down. LaFleur -- who said he understood why the Seahawks would try and score there, despite the 24-7 edge at the time with not much time left -- said he appreciated that his defenders were still battling to keep Seattle out.

In that case, Wingard couldn't agree. The Seahawks were at the end of a 16-play drive in which 15 were runs.

"Them having the ball for 10 minutes and running it on us like that, for me, that's embarrassing," Wingard said. "I don't think there is anything you can take from that. They just bullied us for 10 minutes."