For a while on Sunday, it looked like the Cardinals might pull off a stunning upset of the Commanders.
But in the end, the result was the expected — Arizona fell to Washington 20-16, with a late fumble by Cardinals quarterback Joshua Dobbs helping to seal the loss.
Dobbs, of course, basically just got to Arizona after spending the offseason program and training camp with Cleveland. With Kyler Murray on the reserve/physically unable to perform list, Dobbs was nevertheless the Cardinals’ QB1 to open 2023. He finished the game 21-of-30 passing for 132 yards. He technically had three fumbles, losing two.
“I thought he did a good job,” head coach Jonathan Gannon said postgame, via Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press. “He operated. We had a couple good drives there. Took care of the ball. The last two were unfortunate, but that’s going to happen. I thought our operation was pretty clean. He made some throws, operated well.”
But Arizona did not score an offensive touchdown, so there’s some clear room for improvement. Dobbs said he’s anticipating things being a lot better in the Cardinals’ Week 2 matchup with the Giants.
“I think a huge jump is in store,” Dobbs said, via Donnie Druin of SI.com. “Just getting out there, getting the flow of the game right. Getting the flow with the guys — timing, rhythm and the game’s always different than practice sometimes.
“We can definitely make a huge jump, and I expect to make a huge jump especially situationally. So, I know all of us do. We’ll go back, we’ll watch the film. It’s the first game. We’ll look at the things we did well, look at things we can improve and we’ll hone in on those things that we can do better and keep improving on what we do well.”
Dobbs got the starting nod over rookie Clayton Tune and is expected to keep the job moving forward.
