Three Takeaways From Cardinals' Week 1 Loss

The Arizona Cardinals fell short in their hopes of upsetting the Washington Commanders - here's our three biggest takeaways.

The Arizona Cardinals put the football world on notice during their 20-16 loss to the Washington Commanders.

The Cardinals spent an entire offseason listening to talk of them tanking and how awful the team would be entering 2023. After quickly going down 7-0, the Cardinals surprisingly took a 13-10 lead into the locker room at halftime and got down to the WAS 19 on their opening drive of the second half. 

Arizona settled for a field goal and wouldn't score the rest of the way, collapsing and failing to make good on any of their late opportunities. 

Despite the low expectations, it was still a disappointing loss considering the Cardinals were in the mix until the very end. 

As Arizona hits the runway and flies back home for Week 2, here's our three takeaways from their opening day loss:

Three Takeaways From Cardinals' Week 1 Loss

1. A New Culture is Here

The Cardinals can certainly do without the various personal foul penalties (all of them, actually), but after watching the first 60 minutes of the Jonathan Gannon era, it's safe to say this team looks different.

This isn't a vouch for a Cardinals Super Bowl ticket, nor an endorsement for Coach of the Year. Yet the Cardinals came out of the gates with an inspiring amount of energy and played tougher than most people would have believed - Washington themselves included. 

Gannon's first year won't be judged off wins and losses, but rather how the team responds to his leadership and if he can develop the talent he has over the course of 18 weeks.

The Cardinals are clearly rebuilding, and their immediate roster has suffered as a sacrifice for the bigger picture. Factor Kyler Murray's absence in Arizona's outlook and it's easy to overlook the Cardinals on a weekly basis. Wins aren't expected to come often in the desert.

But that's not how Gannon thinks - or operates. The most you can do as a coach is trust your players to buy in and play hard. That certainly was the case today.  

All offseason, we heard players and coaches praise the "shock" Gannon and his staff brought to the organization.

Despite the loss, another brick of that foundation was laid today. 

This Defense Can Play

Six sacks. Three turnovers. One touchdown. This Cardinals defense came to play.

Zaven Collins himself was involved in two of those turnovers. Dennis Gardeck registered two sacks and six different Cardinals registered a pass deflected.

Washington's first drive was ugly - the Commanders began at their own nine-yard line and were helped by three penalties (totaling 67 yards) to find the end zone and draw first blood. 

After the Cardinals sorted those issues out, it became awfully tough for Washington to drive the ball. Seven of Washington's final 11 drives were four plays or less. The Commanders ran a total of 65 offensive plays and began on Arizona's 29 and 22-yard line for their two fourth quarter scores. 

Simply put: Arizona's defense held their own today, and the Cardinals' offense needs to do a better job moving forward to help those guys out. 

Arizona's defense still has plenty to clean up, though you have to be encouraged on what they accomplished in Week 1. 

3. Conservative Offense Won't Win Games

There's been a lot of talk surrounding quarterback Josh Dobbs and his performance today - rightfully so. The Cardinals traded a fifth-round pick for him and immediately dubbed him the starter after just two weeks of practice. You'd figure they were confident in him.

To Dobbs' credit, he was careful with the football when throwing. In someone like Dobbs' position, your job is to not turn the ball over and command the offense. 

He only did one of those things.

Dobbs fired balls off quickly rather than letting a tough Washington front get to him, yet the Commanders did a good job of forcing Arizona to play short and not test them long. Dobbs' 4.4 yards per attempt not only is an indictment on his inability to push the ball deep, but also falls on the lap of OC Drew Petzing.

To Petzing's defense, you're not going to open up the entire playbook in Week 1 - let alone with a quarterback who only has two weeks worth of practice in your own system regardless of prior experience together. 

However, the Cardinals consistently found themselves behind the chains on second and third down thanks to Petzing putting a lid on his offense and orchestrating short and sweet reads. That includes HB draws and screen passes on third-and-long, though it wasn't to the epic proportions we saw from Kliff Kingsbury.

Only putting away three field goals and nothing else isn't going to win games. Given Arizona's status with Kyler Murray, Dobbs still figuring out where his apartment's at in AZ and Petzing calling his first game, it's reasonable to see why there were struggles.

However, the Cardinals need to open things up moving forward, or they might be doomed to the same fate.