Things had been going great for the starting quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals. Since being anointed Kyler Murray's stand-in back in early September, Joshua Dobbs was playing well above expectations. At least until last weekend, that is.
Following three-consecutive outstanding performances, Dobbs was given a strong dose of reality during last Sunday's 34-20 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. The 28-year-old posted a downright ugly 46.8% completion percentage, and was responsible for all three of the offense's turnovers. In fact, one of Dobbs' miscues seemed to turn all of the momentum over to Cincinnati in the second quarter.
Operating from Arizona's own one-yard line, Dobbs was faced with the task of digging his team out of an unenviable hole. On a second down and 10, the 6 foot 3, 216 pounder fired an ill-advised throw in the direction of two Redbirds wide receivers. Cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt took the errant Dobbs toss into the end zone, and the Bengals had a 17-14 lead that they would not relinquish.
The success that Josh Dobbs was enjoying with the Arizona Cardinals hit a speedbump last weekend
Just one week earlier, Dobbs had found success in the exact same situation during the squad's Week 4 clash with the San Francisco 49ers. The journeyman signal-caller led the Cards on a magnificent 11-play, 99 yard march that culminated with an eight-yard touchdown pass to rookie wideout Michael Wilson. "Big Red" went on to lose the matchup by a score of 35-16, but Dobbs received kudos for leading his teammates on a spectacular scoring drive against the league's most ferocious defense.
While Dobbs had his moments during the meeting with Cincinnati (two first-half touchdown passes), his inability to protect the ball was just too much for the Cardinals to overcome. That's something that the Georgia native had done so well during that trio of impressive outings he enjoyed in Weeks 2, 3, and 4. During that time, Dobbs was credited with five scores (one on the ground) for Arizona, and committed zero turnovers.
The Cards are going to need more of the same out of Dobbs if they expect to win any more games with him going forward. Of course, Murray's return from the knee injury he suffered in December of 2022 could come at any moment. In the meantime, the limited Dobbs will continue to give everything he has to an organization that gave him an opportunity to show the NFL what he could do.
(Statistics provided by ESPN.com)