Commanders News: Sam Howell, Magic Johnson, Montez Sweat and Ron Rivera

Commanders DE Montez Sweat's dominance

With the offense struggling to find a consistent rhythm for long periods of the game, it was once again up to the Washington Commanders' defense to spearhead them to victory. As always, the defensive line stepped up and took over in the most critical moments to completely overwhelm the Arizona Cardinals.

Montez Sweat was nothing short of sensational, gaining 1.5 sacks, two tackles for loss, and five tackles throughout the contest. When asked about his special performance in front of a jam-packed FedEx Field, the former first-round pick out of Mississippi State was eager to put others front and center based on his comments via the team's website.

"A win is a win. At the end of the day, it was all a team effort. Offense, defense, special teams; we just came out with the win. Yeah I mean, that's what we pride ourselves on; defense closing games. I kept on telling them, Who is going to be the closer? [DT] Jon [Allen] came up with a big sack for us and we came out with the dub [Win]. I think there's urgency on both sides of the ball. The offense needed to close and we needed to close, so it was a team effort. Game-changing plays like that definitely get the team going. We've just got to build on it."

- Montez Sweat via Commanders.com

With Chase Young, Phidarian Mathis, and Efe Obada all missing from the contest, it spoke volumes about the Commanders' defensive line depth to see such a positive performance. Hopefully, this is a trend that can continue at the Denver Broncos in Week 2.