Russell Wilson To Start Vs. Arizona Cardinals: How Will He Fare?

For the third straight season, the Arizona Cardinals will begin their season facing a quarterback making his NFL debut. Two season ago, it was against Sam Bradford and the St. Louis Rams. Last season it was hosting Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. In 2012, it will be hosting the Seattle Seahawks and Russell Wilson, who won the starting job over free agent acquisition Matt Flynn.

Whether this is a positive or a negative thing, there are a couple of interesting stats that are worth noting.

The first is simply the wins and losses. Arizona won in these QBs' debut. Since the Cardinals play much better at University of Phoenix Stadium and rookie quarterbacks tend to struggle on the road, you would have to think that the Cards will hold the advantage in their Week 1 contest against Seattle.

However, there is another interesting fact that blew me away. Historically, the Cardinals have some of the worst showings against quarterbacks in their debut. Including Cam Newton's record-breaking performance, the Cards have allowed three of the five highest yardage totals to a quarterback in his debut.

Newton holds the record. He threw for 422 yards, the most ever by a rookie in his debut.

In 1987, the Cardinals played against the Washington Redskins and faced a quarterback by the name of Ed Rubbert (I've never heard of him either). He put up the third highest passing yardage total in a debut with 334. A season later, against the same Redskins, Mark Rypien threw for 303 yards, the fifth highest total.

Obviously you can't really draw a comparison with teams that played over 20 years ago, but it is interesting that the Cards have been the team the quarterbacks have faced when these performances happened.

I'm not saying Russell Wilson does the same thing, but he has been pretty spectacular thus far.

What do you think the result will be? A win for the Cards? And if so, how much will Wilson factor into that loss?

Take it away! Discuss it!