Christian Matthew gave Arizona Cardinals fans a glimmer of hope in first preseason game

The Arizona Cardinals played a great three quarters in their first preseason game. Then they hung on to win 36-23.

We heard about a lot of players who played well, including Victor Dimukeje on defense and Marquis Hayes and Greg Dortch on offense.

Maybe the most important player who looked good was rookie seventh round pick Christian Matthew of Valdosta State.

Matthew is a long, lean cornerback with very good athleticism, but he had a lot of questions to answer about coming from a small school and his third school in his college career.

He turns 26 in October on top of that.

Yet, when you look at the corners that played last week, no player stood out more than Matthew.

Matthew played 26 defensive snaps, lining up at outside cornerback for 23 snaps and had two targets against him.

He gave up no catches, had a pass break-up and was otherwise great in coverage.

The Cardinals desperately need someone to step up at cornerback, and Matthew is going to have a chance to continue to show what he can do.

Let’s hope he can continue to work into the cornerback rotation.