The 2025 Dallas Cowboys are in a tough spot at the moment. Their season already feels like a movie the fanbase has seen countless times, and decided it isn’t worth the stay. Even the worst movies can at least have scenes worth watching though, and if each week of the NFL season is a scene, the Cowboys will at least be hoping their Monday Night Football debut under Brian Schottenheimer can be a familiar and worthwhile scene on offense.
The Cowboys are off a deflating road loss in Denver, their eighth straight to the Broncos. That loss has them still searching for their next opportunity to reach a winning record, which even with a win against a Cardinals team that has lost five in a row will have to wait until at least week 11. The Cowboys are getting the Cardinals off of their bye, and then going into the bye themselves aiming for a 4-4-1 record at that point. Doing so against the Cardinals will not come easy, as the Cowboys have lost seven of their last eight to Arizona between 2008 and 2023.
Dallas’ one win against Arizona in this stretch came on the road in 2017, also on a Monday night. The Cowboys came into that game off their now second-to-most-recent loss in Denver, humiliated once again 42-17. The Cowboys bounced back to beat the Cardinals 28-17, getting a similar type of redeeming performance they’ll need this Monday from Dak Prescott.
Prescott ran in the team’s first touchdown of the game in the first half to tie the game at seven, put the Cowboys ahead in the third quarter with a touchdown to Dez Bryant, then threw a fourth quarter touchdown to Brice Butler to give the Cowboys the lead for good. Doing all of this on just 18 attempts – tied for the second lowest in his career still to this day – Prescott completed 13 of them for 183 yards and the two scores. The Cowboys had less first downs, total yards, ran 30 less plays, and had a worse third-down percentage compared to the Cardinals in this game, but still found a way to win.
Sean Lee and Jaylon Smith led the Cowboys defense in tackles against a Carson Palmer-led Cardinals offense, carried by Larry Fitzgerald who dominated with 13 catches on 15 targets for 149 yards and a touchdown. The Cardinals only rushed for 49 yards at 2.3 yards per carry though, punting six times and turning the ball over on downs on their final possession.
With so many throwback names littered throughout the box score of this win (Terrance Williams, Ezekiel Elliott, and Jason Witten tied for the lead in targets with four for the Cowboys passing game), the fact it was on a Monday and also came off a road loss to the Broncos is about the end of the relevant ties to this upcoming primetime game. The Cowboys can still be hopeful history will repeat itself in this way, but the more important thing they must avoid is a repeat of yet another Monday night football meeting they had at AT&T Stadium against the Cardinals in 2020.
The first loss of an active three-game losing streak to the Cardinals, the Cowboys were also trying to get back to .500 in week six of Mike McCarthy’s first season. Much like Schottenheimer’s debut season is being bogged down by first-year defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus’ defense being historically bad, the Cowboys were in the exact same predicament in 2020 with a defensive coordinator under the same circumstances in Mike Nolan.
This Cowboys loss to the Cardinals was their fourth home game of the season. In the previous three, Nolan’s defense gave up 39 points to the Falcons, 38 to the Browns, and 34 to the Giants. The Prescott-led offense was still able to turn two of these poor defensive games into wins, beating the Falcons for McCarthy’s first win in the “watermelon kick” game 40-39, and the Giants 37-34. Although the Cowboys would go on to obviously play better defense within McCarthy’s tenure once Dan Quinn arrived as DC, the seeds that this team’s only consistent ticket to wins was scoring a boatload of points particularly in home games were planted early.
Dallas would have no such luck on either side of the ball against the Cardinals, losing 38-10 in a game started by Andy Dalton for the injured Prescott. Dalton was forced to throw the ball an unruly 54 times, completing 34 of them for 266 yards and a score, but he also threw two interceptions. The Cowboys were never competitive nor had a foothold in this game, trailing 21-3 at halftime and 31-3 in the fourth quarter.
Cardinals QB Kyler Murray set a new career low (at the time) in completions with just nine on 24 attempts, but it hardly mattered as the Cards ran for 261 yards. Nolan’s defense previously allowed a franchise-record 360 yards rushing to the Browns, and similarly got lit up by the Cardinals and Kenyan Drake. One of Murray’s completions was an 80-yard touchdown to Christian Kirk to put Arizona ahead 21-0 in the first half.
Drake set a new career high in yards per carry in a game he started with 8.2, ripping off a 69-yard touchdown for the final points of the night for the Cardinals. The Cardinals actually punted on their first three drives of the game with two 3-and-outs, but then scored touchdowns on their next three, had the ball to run out the clock in the first half, and scored again off an interception early in the third.
Nolan’s defense was simply never able to line up and set the edge against the run, sending the Cowboys into a four-game losing streak where the offense continued to struggle without Prescott. The Cowboys have run into similar concerns with Eberflus’ defense against the run, especially last week at the Broncos, and will have to be careful about how much they load up to stop it this Monday night too. The Cardinals have two receivers in Marvin Harrison Jr. and Zay Jones averaging over 15 yards a catch, as well as athletic tight end Trey McBride, and the rushing threat of Murray. With an extra week to prepare against a defense that gives up big plays like Halloween candy, the Cardinals have the ability to torture this Cowboys defense.
Murray won’t start under the lights at Jerryworld, after missing the Cardinals last two games against the Colts and Packers, he will give way to Jacoby Brissett for another week,. Despite being without their starting QB and playing against two of the better teams in the league right now, the Cardinals only lost to the Colts and Packers by four. This brought the total amount of points they’ve lost their last fives games by to 13, with a pair of one-point losses at the 49ers and versus the Titans. One of their two wins is also against the same Panthers team that beat the Cowboys three weeks ago.
The Cardinals may not be playing with the same season-saving intentions as the Cowboys at 2-5 because of these tough losses, in a division where every other team has five wins going into Sunday. This hardly means they won’t relish the opportunity to keep their good fortunes against the Cowboys going and get the offense rolling against this suspect Dallas defense.
The Cowboys have been much more competitive in their last two games against the Cardinals compared to that 2020 Monday night blowout, but nonetheless have fallen short each time. Even a Cowboys team in 2021 that hosted the Cardinals having won four straight, fresh off a 56-14 beatdown of the Washington Football Team, had this streak snapped by the Cardinals 25-22. Dallas went on to beat the Eagles 51-26 the following week to end the regular season, making the Cardinals their only loss in the final six weeks.
The most recent road loss at the Cardinals in 2023 also came after the Cowboys won their first two games in dominant fashion against the New York franchises, 40-0 at the Giants and 30-10 vs. the Jets. The Cowboys were banged up on the offensive line missing three starters by week three though, losing 28-16 at the Cardinals led this time by Josh Dobbs at QB.
Tony Pollard had a big day on the ground despite the offensive line situation, and Rico Dowdle caught a touchdown, but Dallas going 1-5 in the red zone and settling for three Brandon Aubrey field goals sealed their fate in Phoenix.
The Cowboys have relied on Dak Prescott being the better QB in almost any given matchup to win before, but not against the Cardinals. The Cowboys have relied on having a strong running game before, but not against the Cardinals. The Cowboys have even relied on having a pass rush a few times, but not against the Cardinals. None of these things have seemed to matter in recent meetings against the team that used to be a division opponent they dominated.
The Cowboys did win a remarkable 13 games in a row against the Phoenix Cardinals from 1990-96. They also won 16 of 17 through 1998 in this window, with the only loss breaking up the streak being in overtime on the road in 1997.
Dallas should consider themselves fortunate at this point in the year to be playing a home game on Monday night with a chance to remain in the thick of playoff discussions with a win, knowing what their offense is capable of at home and this time drawing a struggling Arizona defense. The tough spot they find themselves in is that even another big showing from the offense that leads to a rare win against the Cardinals will feel routine to fans that were more ready to buy in prior to the Broncos game, only for that game to be a disaster. The only way Schottenheimer’s team can begin the slow process of proving they’re any different from recent year’s teams is by going into the bye with this win though, setting them up once again for a chance at a winning streak with another Monday night game looming in Las Vegas against the Raiders after the bye.
See More:
