Josh Dobbs Expects 'Huge Jump' From Cardinals Moving Forward
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Josh Dobbs was unsuccessful in his first start of the season, as his team fell to the Washington Commanders in 20-16 fashion.
The Cardinals failed to score a touchdown offensively, as their lone score of the day came on the defensive side of the ball with Cameron Thomas scooping-and-scoring in the final moments of the second quarter.
Matt Prater nailed all three of his field goals to supply the other nine points in a rather unimpressive day for the offense.
Dobbs - acquired just over two weeks ago via trade after the team dumped Colt McCoy - finished his day by going 21-30 for 132 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions to note.
He did however have two fumbles, one coming via strip-sack and the other on a simple mishandling under center.
"I just gotta stay in there. That's on me. [It was a] wet ball so as a quarterback you gotta secure every single exchange, so that's on me," Dobbs said following the game. "That's something we worked on, specifically a wet ball in practice knowing the weather for the game. In that situation I got to secure the snap and get the ball to the running back."
The Cardinals mustered just 210 net yards and had 13 first downs to Washington's 21. Arizona was 4-14 on third-down conversions and gained just 3.6 yards per play.
Heading into halftime with a 13-10 lead, Arizona touched the ball first to begin the third quarter and looked well on their way to potentially extending their lead to double digits, driving all the way to the WAS 19 before settling for a field goal.
That would be the final score for the Cardinals, as the rest of the drives followed with: punt, fumble, punt, fumble and turnover on downs.
"We were moving the ball, we found our rhythm. They have a really good front - we were able to neutralize them at times. They made some plays at key moments, obviously. But we found a rhythm," Dobbs said.
"Now it's keeping that rhythm, sustaining drives, staying on the field, keeping our defense off the field and putting the ball in the endzone because that's our job on offense."
It was an overall rocky start for Arizona's offense. Though Dobbs didn't throw an interception, his 4.4 yards per attempt simply wasn't going to get the job done.
Now having a game under his belt in a new setting, Dobbs is confident the Cardinals will bounce back.
"I think a huge jump is in store. 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," Dobbs said.
"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."
When asked if he expects to be the starter moving forward, Dobbs said "100%".
The Cardinals host the New York Giants in Week 2.
