As many expected, the Arizona Cardinals found themselves firmly entrenched at the 32nd position in ESPN’s power rankings following their Week One loss to the Washington Commanders.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Although the Cardinals held a lead well into the third quarter, primarily due to a commendable defensive effort, their offensive performance was worrisome to say the least. They managed a mere 3.08 yards per first-down attempt, ranking them 28th in the entire NFL.
Arizona’s defense picked up six sacks, two fumbles, an interception, and the team’s lone touchdown.
This defensive display didn’t go unnoticed, as ESPN lauded the Cardinals’ new defensive coordinator, Nick Rallis, for his stellar debut performance.
From ESPN: “The Cardinals have a new defensive coordinator, and his unit showed up Sunday against the Commanders with a solid performance, but it ultimately ran out of gas by the end of the game after six sacks by five different players. Arizona’s defense, which has four new faces, didn’t seem to have any issue dealing with the transition to a new defensive coordinator.”
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the highly competitive NFC West, the Los Angeles Rams secured the 22nd spot in the rankings. This is quite low considering their convincing win against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. Nevertheless, the Rams still moved up five spots compared to their preseason rankings.
As a result of this surprising upset, the Seahawks moved down six spots to the 18th position.
Lastly, of course, after they embarrassed the Steelers, Brock Purdy and the 49ers were placed #1 in the Power Rankings.
