There are a number of matchups that will decide how the game plays out between the Washington Football Team and Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon. Whether it be Arizona’s secondary against Washington’s thin receiving corps, or Washington’s linebacking core looking to cover the Cardinals TE group. All of those hold significant weight in Week 2, and the way they play out will go a long way in deciding who wins the game.
No matchup, however, will be more entertaining to watch than that of Chase Young vs. Kyler Murray.
Of course, you can expand this a bit to include the entire defensive line Washington against Arizona’s offensive front, but the one thing that many people will be tuning in to see on Sunday afternoon is what these two young and dynamic players are going to bring to the table this early in the season.
On one side, you have a rookie DE, the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft, coming off of an impressive NFL debut where he did nothing but strengthen his odds at winning the Defensive Rookie of the Year award.
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On the other side, you have a second-year QB, the former No. 1 overall pick and Heisman Trophy winner who has made a living so far off of evading pressure and making plays with his feet.
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So who will come out on top? We can’t perfectly predict the outcome, but with a game of evidence for both of these teams, it’s fair to make some assumptions. We saw last week against the Eagles that Washington’s defensive line is downright nasty, and they were able to get after Carson Wentz endlessly, sacking him a total of eight times. Of course, Philly was dealing with a banged-up offensive line that was pieced together at the last minute, but even against a healthy unit, they likely would have still played a major impact.
That brings us to the Cardinals front, who isn’t entirely healthy either. It was announced on Friday that starting center Mason Cole for this game. Our friend at Cardinals Wire assures us that backup Lamont Gaillard will be just fine in his absence, but it’s still something to keep an eye on. While the edges of the line might be able to hold back Chase Young, Montez Sweat, and Ryan Kerrigan better than the Eagles could, can we say the same for the interior spots? Could this be a big day for Daron Payne, Jonathan Allen, and Matt Ioannidis?
The next questions come for whether or not Washington can get ahold of Murray should they get into the backfield. With such an elusive player, is he liable to evade the long arms of Young? It’s definitely possible, and one number that you don’t like to see as a Washington fan is the fact that in three career games against Murray, San Francisco 49ers DE Nick Bosa has yet to record a sack. On the contrary, Murray was sacked a total of 48 times in his rookie year, and the 49ers brought him down twice last Sunday. So it may be an interesting stat, but it’s probably not conducive to any skill-level or something of that sort.
We have the numbers, and we have an idea of what might happen, but there are a number of variables at play. No matter what happens, though, you can guarantee that it’s going to be some high entertainment watching Young come flying around the edge and look to meet Murray in the backfield. What happens from there? That’s what we can’t wait to see.
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