The Seattle Seahawks’ pressure rate on Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray fell nearly 20 percent from the first matchup to the second, but that was more due to offensive adjustments than defensive failure.

In Week 12, Seattle pressured Murray on 22 of his 37 dropbacks (59.5 percent) and sacked him five times, per Pro Football Focus. This past week, Murray faced pressure on 17 of 42 dropbacks (40.5 percent) and was sacked just twice.

But those numbers don’t exist in a vacuum. Pivoting from the failed offensive approach that led to no touchdowns for Arizona in the first matchup, the Cardinals opted for more quick throws in Week 14.

That was a direct counter to Seattle’s potent pass rush that torched the Cardinals’ offensive line — a unit that entered the first game allowing pressure on less than 25 percent of Murray’s pass attempts.

Murray’s average time to throw against the Seahawks dropped from 3.19 seconds in Week 12 to 2.73 seconds in Week 14, per PFF. That was below his season average of 2.86 seconds.

Seattle’s pass rushers had fewer chances to affect Murray, but the back end of the defense still nabbed two interceptions as the dual-threat Arizona quarterback’s average depth of target dropped by nearly three yards per attempt.

Rookie first-round defensive tackle Byron Murphy II tied his season high of four pressures, followed by three each from edge rusher Derick Hall and defensive tackle Jarran Reed. Hall and Reed each logged a quarterback hit.

Safety Rayshawn Jenkins and nose tackle Johnathan Hankins registered the Seahawks’ two sacks.

Seattle’s pressure-to-sack percentage (P2S%) remains below average, but it still is affecting quarterbacks at an above-average rate. After Week 14, the Seahawks rank 23rd in P2S% at 13.17 percent. They’re simultaneously fifth in total pressures at 243.

After a two-game series that was as dominant as any defensive lineman in NFL history, Leonard Williams fell back to earth pass rush-wise but still tallied seven tackles and a tackle for loss.

Williams still leads Seattle with 40 total pressures, seven sacks and 10 quarterback hits this season. He’s been the Seahawks’ most productive rusher this season and is the primary reason they are tied for 15th in total sacks (32).

Edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu didn’t have a stellar return, but he also played just 21 defensive snaps in his first game back from injury. That was third-least of any player who saw the field on defense for Seattle.

The Green Bay Packers, who Seattle hosts on Sunday night, have a puzzling offensive line. Quarterback Jordan Love has been pressured on 31.7 percent of his dropbacks this season, which is higher than the Cardinals, but Love has only been sacked 11 times.

For reference: Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith has been brought down 40 times this season, while Murray has been sacked 23 times.

Pressuring Love will be key to creating potential takeaways for the Seahawks’ defense and putting the Packers behind the sticks. Seattle has been most effective defensively this season when getting consistent pressure.

Seattle and Green Bay kick off at 5:20 p.m. on Sunday at Lumen Field. The Seahawks will have the crowd to their advantage to help aid the defensive effort.

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PHOENIX — Despite widespread dissatisfaction with the state’s public education system, many Arizona teachers are staying out of love for their students, according to new research.

A new report from the Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy that surveyed over 7,500 Arizona teachers found that nearly two-thirds of them have considered leaving their jobs.

However, the desire to improve their students’ lives keeps them going, according to Kristi Eustice, the institute’s assistant research director.

“Educators care about their students, and they feel like they’re making a difference, so that’s what’s keeping them in the classroom,” Eustice told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Wednesday.

Many teachers feel that students’ needs have grown acutely since the COVID-19 pandemic, she added.

“Educators talked about student behavior and how they think they’ve seen an increase in student behavior challenges, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said. “They really talked about it from the perspective of needing more support staff, needing more help to get the students the support they need.”

Other reasons Arizona teachers are staying

Aside from loyalty to their students, a supportive administration can also help fight Arizona’s struggling retention rates, she added.

“School leadership can make a big difference in the classroom: having an administration that’s supportive and takes into account educators allows them to be in the room for decision-making,” Eustice said.

It can make a world of difference for Arizona teachers, many of whom cited low salaries and meager benefits as issues driving them out of the profession.

The struggles of being a teacher in the Grand Canyon state can have deleterious effects on an instructor’s mental health, according to Eustice.

“In our focus groups and interviews, we heard explicit mentions of things like anxiety and depression,” Eustice said. “There’s just kind of an overwhelming feeling of ‘there’s too much to do and not enough time to do it.’”

Whatever difficulties the Arizona Wildcats have had early in the season, coming into a game against 0-8 Cal State Bakersfield didn’t seem like much of a challenge. It wasn’t. The Wildcats used their size to dominate both early and late on the way to a 76-39 victory.

“Was disappointed after the GCU game, just in how we kind of led and at the end, let it slip away,” Barnes said. “I hope that you saw we got better today. Obviously, it’s hard to gauge against different opponents, against a zone, but we weren’t so stagnant against the zone. So we really took pride in working on some different situations and understanding where to get shots from, how to get shots against man or zone, and I thought we did a better job executing and sharing the ball. Hope it looked like that today. And moved the ball better. We didn’t hold it a lot. We still did it sometimes, but baby steps.”

Both Breya Cunningham and Isis Beh hit their first three shots. Cunningham had 13 points, five rebounds, two assists, one block, and one steal in 18 minutes of play. Beh contributed eight points on 4-for-4 shooting, two rebounds, one assist, and three steals in 11 minutes on the court.

“She brought really good energy,” Barnes said of Beh. “And what I love is that she looked to score. She’s such an unselfish player. But we are better when she gets the ball and she’s a threat. We aren’t good when she doesn’t look at the basket.”

Beh was returning after missing two games while in concussion protocol, although she came off the bench rather than her usual starting position. Sahnya Jah also returned after missing the GCU loss for undisclosed reasons.

Skylar Jones tied Cunningham for the game high with 13 points in 23 minutes. She went 4 for 4 in the first half, including hitting both of her 3-point shots. Jones ended the game shooting 5 for 6 from the floor. She dished out three assists but had four of the Wildcats’ turnovers. She also had one steal.

Most important for Jones was that she played more fundamentally sound. It’s something that she has been working on in practice.

“I think that’s why I shot five for six today, because I shot on balance and I shot the open shots and didn’t force anything,” Jones said. “I don’t think I had a charge today. I didn’t have charge today! That’s the first time in like, four games! Those charges have make me a little bit more hesitant with driving to the basket. So I think I need to just play basketball and stop overthinking it and go off two feet, because that’s making my percentage go up, and it’s more accurate when I shoot off two feet and not out of control. Coach, don’t nod your head.”

With the game well in hand, Barnes was able to get plenty of playing time for her young players. Katarina Knežević took full advantage. She had the best game of her young career with nine points, five rebounds, three assists, and three steals in 25 minutes.

As a team, the Wildcats took care of the ball better than they have all season. They had just 10 turnovers, three less than their previous season low against California. Four of the five starters did not turn the ball over at all. With 18 assists, it was the first time the team had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio this season.

“A lot of our turnovers come from the guards trying to get the ball inside or passing too fast off of one foot, not having balance, things like that,” Cunningham said. “Once we were focused in, conscious of how we were passing, we were slowed down. That was one of our goals before the game, was to have a positive assist (to turnover).”

They also had a season-low nine personal fouls. The most whistles came on Cunningham, but she only had two fouls.

“We need to learn that a lot of us need to be on the floor so we can’t pick up early fouls and stupid reaching fouls or fouling with our hands down, things like that,” Jones said. “So I think that was the main focus of us is moving our feet more and more communication, which was seen today, which was good. Which is probably why we had a few less turnovers. Not me, though, I have four, but as a team, we did have less turnovers. We only had like 10.”

Barnes was happy about the decrease in fouls, although she admitted that some of that was likely due to the opposition’s ability to put pressure on Arizona’s defenders.

“I think we’re getting a little bit more disciplined,” Barnes said. “I think some of it was not being really aggressive, us being a little bit passive, like not as much pressure on the ball, which I recognize that. And then just the talent offensively. I think it’s a lot harder to contain when you guard really freak athletes. So I think there’s a combination of both of those things. But the thing is, in the past, you would have seen us slapping down. So we’re working on that. But these are things that we’re working on daily. We are working on playing without fouling.”

Arizona held CSUB below 10 points in three of four quarters. The Roadrunners scored nine in the first quarter, six in the third, and eight in the fourth. The shot 29.2 percent from the floor and hit 6 of 21 shots from beyond the arc.

Things got ragged on the offensive end for the Wildcats at several points, especially when they had a lot of newcomers on the floor at the same time. After shooting 56.7 percent from the floor in the first half, they dropped to 34.3 percent in the second half. However, they also shut down the Roadrunners on the defensive end.