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Week 1 - Washington Commanders (0-0) vs. Arizona Cardinals (0-0)
Nuts & Bolts
Date: September 10, 2023
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
Venue: FedEx Field, Landover, MD
How to Watch: FOX
Matchup History: Washington leads all time series 76-47-2
Last Meeting: Arizona def. Washington 30-15 on 9/20/2020
Betting Lines: Via DraftKings
Spread: Washington -7
Over/Under: 38
Prediction: Washington 23, Arizona 9
Official Game Notes: HERE
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Head Coach: Ron Rivera (4th season, 22-27-1 record in Washington)
Record: 0-0 (0-0, T-1st in NFC East)
Last Time Out: Def. Dallas 26-6 in Week 18 of 2022 season
Highlights HERE
Player to Watch: Sam Howell
Washington opens the 2023 season at home against the Arizona Cardinals, a team widely regarded as the worst in the NFL.
The Commanders need to start fast and are expected to set the tone early with new quarterback Sam Howell running the offense along with first-year Offensive Coordinator Eric Bienemy.
Washington is better at nearly every position from top to bottom in the game and should be able to dominate offensively.
Defensively, the Commanders face a quarterback in Josh Dobbs who the Cardinals traded for just over two weeks ago on August 24.
Dobbs has not taken a live snap with Arizona and has played in just eight games in his previous four seasons, including two starts for the Tennessee Titans in 2022.
I like Howell to get hot early with easy completions to Dotson and McLaurin but it’s the rushing attack that owns the day with Brian Robinson and Antonio Gibson gashing the Cardinals defense in an emphatic Washington win that isn’t as close as the score suggests.
Head Coach: Jonathan Gannon (1st season, 0-0 record in Arizona)
Record: 0-0 (0-0, T-1st in NFC West)
Last Time Out: Lost @ San Francisco 38-13 in Week 18 of 2022 season
Highlights HERE
Player to Watch: Joshua Dobbs
Perhaps the most agreed upon subject across NFL punditry is which team will end up being the NFL’s worst. More often than not, should you pose the question, the answer you will hear will be “the Arizona Cardinals.”
The Cardinals have a first year head coach in Jonathan Gannon, who spent the last two seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Gannon takes over a team that went 4-13 a season ago, including seven straight losses to close out the year.
The Cardinals will be without star Quarterback Kyler Murray for much of the year due to an ACL tear back on December 12 in a Monday night game against New England. He’ll be out at least the first four weeks of the season.
Throughout the preseason, it was presumed that Arizona would be starting the season with veteran Colt McCoy at quarterback, before he was surprisingly cut after the final preseason game.
On August 24, the Cardinals traded for Browns backup quarterback Josh Dobbs in a move that still has many throughout the NFL puzzled.
Dobbs started the last two games of the season for Tennessee last season, losing both while failing to eclipse 232 passing yards in either game.
To trade for and then plug in a quarterback deemed a backup throughout his entire career to this point has many questioning an ulterior motive for Arizona.
The Cardinals currently possess the Houston Texans first round draft pick in the 2024 draft. Should Arizona ultimately end up being one of the league’s worst teams with Houston not far behind, the team could end up with two of the best picks in next year’s draft…maybe even the top two picks.
Tanking presumably doesn’t happen in the NFL…but this is the closest example, at least on paper, that we’ve ever seen.
It’s going to be a long year in the Desert.