3 winners and losers from the Arizona Cardinals win over Bengals

The Arizona Cardinals won in resounding fashion in Week 1 of the preseason over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Who were the players who were studs, and who was a dud? With a fresh set of game film to analyze, the Arizona Cardinals finally can move on from the wildcard loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

Many weren’t sure what kind of performance the Cardinals third and fourth-string quarterbacks were going to put on, but they did as good as they could have. Trace McSorley was phenomenal and undrafted Jarrett Guarantano also led scoring drives.

So who was the first winner of the night? We’re going to get right into it:

The first winner of the Arizona Cardinals: QB Trace McSorley

It took a defensive pass interference penalty to keep his first drive alive, but that’s the game of football for you. McSorley and the Cardinals took advantage of that penalty and put up 22 first half points.

McSorley found ways to get out of a collapsing pocket, invoking memories of Super Bowl XLII Eli Manning, and was able to find Andy Isabella late in the second quarter. There was no lack of confidence for the former Penn State product, and his run/pass option technique looked very crisp.

The fight for the QB3 spot isn’t over, but McSorley has a great jump on Guarantano for it. Of course, a few years of being in the NFL certainly benefits McSorley. It will be a fantastic battle to watch over the next two weeks.

As a little “frivolite” note, it was nice to see a quarterback make the number 19 good again (John Skelton, thank you for your efforts, but McSorley put some swagger on that number!)

Next up is our first loser of the game.