OK, maybe it's time to start giving the Cardinals a little more respect

Welcome to the Winner’s Circle, a weekly column for BetFTW senior writer Prince J. Grimes to give his thoughts on what’s trending in sports betting.

The Arizona Cardinals got their first win of the season Sunday, beating the Dallas Cowboys by 12 points in what was easily the biggest upset of Week 3.

Arizona was an 11-point underdog for the game, facing the week’s second-largest spread next to the Chicago Bears, who were hammered by the Kansas City Chiefs. The Cardinals, though, pulled out the win.

Unfortunately for them, when you beat the Cowboys, the Cowboys become the story, and that’s exactly what happened. Especially with it being Dallas’ biggest upset loss since 2006. Bettors who had hammered the Cowboys were upset with the team for ruining their parlays. And the rest of America just wanted to laugh at Dallas — including myself.

Lost in all the talk about another Cowboys letdown, however, is how competitive the Cardinals have been.

"Let me throw the Cowboys in all of my parlays today no way they lose to the Cardinals. They're literally trying to lose"

The Cowboys: pic.twitter.com/Q1BvdQkNXU

— br_betting (@br_betting) September 24, 2023

Per @BetMGM Nevada's Scott Shelton (@scottatmirage), Cowboys-Cardinals has biggest point-spread ticket discrepancy on the #NFL Week 3 Sunday docket.

"5/1 tickets Cowboys. There's literally almost nothing on the Cardinals."

— Patrick Everson (@PatrickE_Vegas) September 24, 2023

The Cowboys closed as an 11-point favorite at Caesars Sportsbook vs the Cardinals.

That is their largest upset loss since 2006 and 3rd-largest over the last 25 seasons.

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 24, 2023

With the win, Arizona improved to 3-0 against the spread this season, which is incredibly impressive for a team I had written off as maybe the worst in the NFL before the season started. I wasn’t alone in that. Not only did the Cardinals have a rookie head coach, their starting quarterback was a mystery until just a few days before the season started. The player they eventually named, Joshua Dobbs, had only been on the team for two weeks.

So, when Arizona played a surprisingly competitive game against the Washington Commanders in Week 1, I wrote it off as the Commanders simply being the same old Commanders. Then, in Week 2, when the Cardinals built a 21-point lead over the New York Giants before ultimately losing by a field goal, I wrote that off as the Giants just not being very good either — an easy conclusion after seeing them lose 40-0 to the Cowboys.

But now, after Arizona just handed that same Cowboys team its first loss of the season, it’s time for all of us to stop looking at the other team and give the Cardinals their just due.

Jonathan Gannon gets his first win as a head coach pic.twitter.com/mDAgX7Qd0M

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 24, 2023

Head coach Jonathan Gannon has this team playing above its head right now. The defense is bending but not breaking. James Connor is the NFL’s third leading rusher. The journeyman Dobbs, who entered the season with just two career starts since being drafted in 2017, looks like a competent starter. He’s completing 72 percent of his passes and hasn’t thrown a single interception. The Cardinals aren’t the easy win they were supposed to be.

With all that said, they could still very well end up in the sweepstakes for Caleb Williams and the top pick in the draft by the end of the season. They play the San Francisco 49ers next, and that won’t be an easy game either. San Francisco is currently favored by 14 points at BetMGM. But if the Cardinals cover, it shouldn’t be a surprise anymore.

This team is a lot better than we thought it was, and their competition for worst team in the league looks a whole lot worse.