It wasn’t always pretty, but the Josh Harris era got off to a perfect start – a sell-out crowd of 64,693 saw the Commanders score first, and last, and hold on for a 20-16 win over Arizona in the 2023 season opener and the first game with new ownership.
“They got their first victory – the first one during the regular season – and it’s something to remember,” Ron Rivera said after the game while giving the game ball to Harris. “It was a hard-fought game.”
Washington was a seven-point favorite and expected by many to blitz a Cardinals team also expected by many to be selecting No. 1 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, but the Commanders held a lead indicative of their favorite line for all of 3:22 of game time.
In fact, Arizona was on upset alert as late as the fourth quarter, when they held a 16-10 lead before the Commanders scored the final 10 points of the game.
Sam Howell, in his second NFL start, was 19-for-31 for 202 yards and a touchdown, and added 11 rushing yards and a score on the ground, but he also threw one interception, lost a fumble on a strip sack, and was sacked six times total behind an offensive line that also committed several penalties, not helping their reputation as the weak link of the offense heading into Week 1.
“Offensively, we could’ve played a lot better,” Howell said. “Turnovers, penalties, sacks…just a lot of things I think I can do better. Definitely a lot to clean up on the offensive side of the ball.”
But in the end, it was the Commanders’ defense that got it done, as Montez Sweat’s strip-sack of Joshua Dobbs late in the third set up the touchdown that gave Washington a 17-16 lead, and a fumble recovery by who Abdullah Anderson two drives later led to the field goal that iced it.
“Game-changing plays like that definitely get the team going,” Sweat said. “We just got to build on it.”
Curtis Samuel was Howell’s leading receiver, with five catches for 54 yards, and a hobbled Terry McLaurin had just two grabs for 31 yards on four targets.
Rookie first-round pick Emmanuel Forbes also had a strong NFL debut, with three tackles (one for loss) and a pass defensed.
The 1-0 Commanders will head west next week to Denver, set to face a Broncos team that lost a 17-16 heartbreaker to the Ravens Sunday, while the 0-1 Cardinals will host the Giants, who face Dallas on Sunday night.
