If you polled people ahead of the 2023 season, a lot of people’s pick for the worst team in the league and the rights to draft first overall would have been the Arizona Cardinals. Yet, three weeks into the season, and the Cardinals are 1-2 and fought hard in their two losses.
This was not what people thought would happen, as Kyler Murray is out for probably the majority of the season and Josh Dobbs is the starting quarterback. Well, Dobbs and the Cardinals have been sneaky thus far, giving the Commanders and Giants all they could handle in the first two weeks of the season.
Arizona then really surprised everyone by taking down the then-undefeated Dallas Cowboys to notch their first win of the season. Their defense hasn’t been anything to write home about but the Cardinals are definitely a frisky team this week.
That likely won’t change before the Bengals’ Week 5 match-up with the Cardinals. With that game taking place in the desert, it wouldn’t be a shock if the Cardinals gave Cincinnati a tough fight that week.
These teams once looked like they’d be easy wins for the Cincinnati Bengals but they’ve been playing much better than expected. Maybe they’ll put up more of a fight than we thought they would.