ARIZONA, USA — The Dallas Cowboys held off exposing their true colors for three weeks before imploding for the football world to see in their 28-16 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Things looked bleak from the second snap of the game and the Cowboys never found their groove in an embarrassing loss to a winless team that came into the season more likely eyeing the 2024 first overall NFL Draft pick rather than competing against teams with Super Bowl aspirations such as Dallas.
Cardinals quarterback Joshua Dobbs rushed for 44-yards on the second play from scrimmage, a sign that the Cowboys were in for a fight that they didn’t appear ready for. After two defensive series, Dallas was down 9-0 and was forced to attempt to climb out of the hole.
It never happened.
The Cowboys played ugly, uninspired football and it left questions about how good the team can be after dominating the season’s first two weeks. As good as they looked in outscoring their opponents 70-10 in their opening two games, the Cowboys looked equally incompetent in the loss to the Cardinals.
Dallas had given up just 10 points coming into the game, but they allowed 15 to Arizona on their first three offensive possessions. A defense that had found their groove stopping the run surrendered 222 yards on the ground, and gave up two touchdowns. Running back James Conner ran for 98 yards and a score on just 14 carries, while the Cowboys also gave up a long touchdown run to wide receiver Rondale Moore.
In the first half alone, Dan Quinn’s defense allowed a whopping 182 yards on the ground.
When Moore scored against the misfiring defense, the Cowboys were trailing 15-3 after just under 18 minutes of play. This was not an ideal situation when the team came into the game down three starting offensive linemen and didn’t seem to have the nerve to ask quarterback Dak Prescott to throw the ball down the field.
However, the line held up well, even paving the way for 185 rushing yards. Running back Tony Pollard had his first 100-yard game of the season, racking up 122 on 23 carries. Prescott was sacked twice, but the improvised group did an admirable job under the circumstances.
It was everything else that failed the Cowboys in this loss.
The defense that considered themselves the best in the league folded like cheap lawn furniture. Dallas allowed the Cardinals to score on every first half possession, only forced two punts overall, and induced just one three-and-out.
The defense even had the Cardinals behind the chains twice, with first-and-20 yards to go, but allowed them to convert on both. Arizona wound up scoring 10 points on those drives, something that makes winning a near impossibility.
Dallas simply wasn’t good enough for one of the league’s expected worst teams, but the game was made worse by penalties. Mike McCarthy’s squad was called for 13 accepted penalties, including five that extended drives. That type of undisciplined play has been something that the Cowboys had gotten away from early in the season but has been a problem in recent years. They relapsed hard in Sunday’s loss.
The offense played their part in the desert disaster as well. Despite having a season-high 416 yards of total offense, the Cowboys bogged down in key moments. The offense was 1-5 in red zone opportunities, including going 0-4 in the second half. Three of those failures came on goal-to-go situations, where the Cowboys came away with just six points.
A failed fourth down try and a late interception by Prescott in the end zone were two of the bigger catastrophes. The offense left too many points on the field, which made it difficult to come from behind and win despite every opportunity to do so.
Many of the issues from the offense were brought upon by poor play calling from McCarthy. After being praised in the first two wins, McCarthy’s play calling was cowardly in Week 3, especially in the red zone.
There was not enough variety from the new play-caller near the end zone. McCarthy called for eight runs inside the 10-yard line, and just four passes, all of which came on third or fourth downs. That type of predictability suppressed the offense’s chances at scoring touchdowns and delivered a crushing blow late in the game.
Before Prescott made the horrendous decision to throw into triple coverage, McCarthy called for runs on five straight plays with the clock running down.
Even if the Cowboys had scored a touchdown, McCarthy was leaving the offense precious little time to put together a game-winning drive. Instead, the runs failed to move the ball and gave the Cardinals defense a chance to flood the passing zones knowing that the Cowboys needed to throw.
Prescott’s predictable interception sealed the teams’ fate, but the Cowboys didn’t play well enough to win before that nail embedded in the coffin.
This was a game that Dallas had to find a way to come out victorious. They were playing backup offensive linemen, but it’s a game that they needed to win; against a winless team that was featuring a veteran third-string quarterback that had never won a game, and the Cowboys went out and played a terrible game of football top to bottom.
If it felt like the 2023 version of the Dallas Cowboys were going to be different, the loss to the Cardinals gave everyone reason to doubt them moving forward. Until they prove otherwise, the Cowboys are the same as they ever were, and that’s not good enough.
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