5 winners and losers from the Commanders' win vs. Cardinals in Week 1
By Dean Jones
Loser No. 2
Commanders OL
This might be a little harsh considering how well the Washington Commanders started the game. However, their full body of work in Week 1 was not up to the required standard.
If the Commanders want to attain success from the current campaign, their protection has to do more than just flash moments of quality. They must dominate consistently, although full credit goes to the Arizona Cardinals front seven for performing far better than many originally anticipated.
Running lanes were hard to come by as the game wore on. Perhaps most concerning was second-year quarterback Sam Howell being sacked six times, which didn't sit right with offensive tackle Andrew Wylie based on his post-game comments via the team's website.
"You know, we take that very personally up front. Plain and simple, we've gotta do better. We've gotta lock down our assignments but it all starts tomorrow getting in that film room and figuring out what we need to do better and then game plan starts for week two. We take that very personally. We love keeping our guy clean. We didn't necessarily do our best job of that."
- Andrew Wylie via Commanders.com
There were enough impressive moments to suggest things could progress positively as the unit becomes more cohesive. But there are tricky tests upcoming for the Commanders, so time is of the essence.