The Dallas Cowboys entered Monday night’s game against the Arizona Cardinals with their season still intact. It was barely held together, but technically speaking there were four walls and a roof.
Jerry Jones and Co. may have borrowed building advice from the little piggy who built their house out of straw because it took basically a single puff from the Cardinals for the game, and subsequently the season, to come tumbling down. The Cowboys lost in embarrassing fashion. 27-17, and fell to 3-5-1 on the season.
This marks the lowest point, the furthest under .500 that Dallas has been, on the season and on the eve of the NFL’s trade deadline it underscores just how over this whole thing feels. Again, the whole thing was running on fumes before Monday, but it is going to limp to the end in all likelihood across the holiday season.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that the Cowboys were never even close against the Cardinals. Like last week against the Broncos they were denied a touchdown on their first possession (this was a failed fourth down attempt as opposed to a settling for a field goal) and that really did spell doom.
Below you will find our recap of all of the “action” as it unfolded.
The Drought™ appears destined to officially turn 30 years old.
First Quarter
The Cardinals won the toss and chose to defer which put the Cowboys offense up first.
Matters seemed to be relatively easy for the Cowboys. Javonte Williams was picking up big gain after big gain and soon enough both George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb were involved, too.
Dallas reached a goal to go situation and on first down Williams was taken down by Cardinals rookie Walter Nolen who made his NFL debut in the game. That put the Cowboys being the eight ball and after Jake Ferguson got them close on second down they came up shy on both third and fourth (obviously they went for it) to turn the ball over on downs.
The Cardinals went to work at their own 11-yard line and made legitimate work out of the possession. All told their drive lasted 15 plays, traveled 55 yards, and mercifully came to an end with a field goal after failing on third down (they converted four before it, including penalties). There was a missed penalty on Arizona when Dante Fowler had his facemask pulled, but you know how that goes.
SCORE: COWBOYS 0, CARDINALS 3 (Chad Ryland 48-yard field goal)
It was 3rd and 7 quickly for the Cowboys and Dak Prescott found CeeDee Lamb for the conversion, unfortunately Tyler Booker held on the play and Dallas was backed up 10 yards. Prescott had his arm hit as he launched on 3rd and 17 and the ball floated in the air forever. Thankfully Mack Wilson dropped an interception that was dropping like a punt, but ultimately the Cowboys did actually punt after going three and out. Far from ideal.
Donovan Ezeiruaku had an impressive sack on second down, but unfortunately Arizona had one more before having to make a decision. They converted the 3rd and 14 right as the first quarter ended.
Second Quarter
It took a few moments for matters to turn ugly.
Marvin Harrison Jr. took care of DaRon Bland with relative ease and the Cardinals established a 10-point lead.
SCORE: COWBOYS 0, CARDINALS 10 (Jacoby Brissett to Marvin Harrison Jr. 4-yard touchdown)
The next drive felt critical for the Cowboys given everything to date, and the offense seemed to play as if that was the case.
Dak Prescott was doing all he could and even had a big game on the ground. A few plays later he had a nice conversion to George Pickens that was unfortunately called back thanks to a holding penalty against Jake Ferguson.
Unfortunately that wouldn’t be Ferguson’s lowest point of the drive. On 3rd and 17 the Cowboys were clearly playing for points of any kind by way of a Brandon Aubrey field goal and Prescott dumped it off to Ferg. As Jake was scrambling for more yardage he had the ball popped loose and the Cardinals recovered.
It felt like things were about to really slip away for Dallas. The Cardinals began driving and 17-0 seemed inevitable.
Somehow, the defense held and forced a punt. As if that were not shocking enough… the Cowboys blocked it! And recovered it in the endzone!
SCORE: COWBOYS 7, CARDINALS 10 (Marshawn Kneeland recovery)
The Cardinals began moving once more and all of a sudden the two-minute warning hit.
Arizona kept taking things that were in front of them (which were a lot because, well, you know) and the Cowboys clearly wanted to give themselves a chance to possess the ball before halftime given that the second half would begin with them on defense again.
Dallas burned all of their timeouts and it didn’t help stop the inevitable.
SCORE: COWBOYS 7, COMMANDERS 17 (Jacoby Brissett 1-yard touchdown run)
To make matters all the more embarrassing the ESPN cameras picked up sound of what was clearly a Cardinals player shouting that it was just “so easy” with an expletive in the middle there. The situation was dire to say the least.
KaVontae Turpin had a decent enough return to give the Cowboys a faint chance with 41 seconds before intermission. The Cowboys couldn’t get much done though, although they did give Brandon Aubrey a chance to tie Cam Little’s 68-yard field goal that made NFL history on Sunday.
He missed. That kind of game.
Notably through that offensive sequence Dak Prescott appeared to be bothered and appeared that way when jogging to the locker room for halftime.
Third Quarter
We all anticipated the Cardinals starting the second half with the ball to be a bad thing. We didn’t anticipate just how bad it would be.
Despite a penalty that pushed them back five yards, the Cardinals scored with about as much ease as you can in the NFL. In total it was a 3-play, 79-yard sequence that ended up with a Trey McBride touchdown.
SCORE: COWBOYS 7, CARDINALS 24 (Jacoby Brissett to Trey McBride 12-yard touchdown)
The Cowboys marched down the field and were very clearly motivated to put forth some type of pride. It seemed like a rather desperate drive.
Ultimately they were able to churn out points by way of a Brandon Aubrey field goal, but it took so much of their energy to do so.
SCORE: COWBOYS 10, CARDINALS 24 (Brandon Aubrey 26-yard field goal)
That 10-point deficit would be short-lived for the Cowboys though as the defense allowed more points to be scored the next time that they were up. Thankfully this was only a field goal, but it was depressing nonetheless.
SCORE: COWBOYS 10, CARDINALS 27 (Chad Ryland 34-yard field goal)
Things felt pretty bleak on the next Cowboys possession, although a huge gain between Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb (33 yards) seemed to wake everything up a bit.
Dallas reached fourth down inside of the Arizona 30 and looked ready to go for it as the quarter ended.
Fourth Quarter
As noted the Cowboys went for it on fourth down. It was 4th and 4 to be specific.
Dak Prescott fired one to CeeDee Lamb and Dallas was denied. That kind of night.
Amazingly the Cowboys forced a punt to give themselves another chance. Hope was slim, but existent nonetheless.
That hope grew a little bit as the Cowboys scored rather quickly (it took two minutes).
SCORE: COWBOYS 17, CARDINALS 27 (Dak Prescott to Ryan Flournoy 5-yard touchdown)
The Cowboys defense deserves credit for doing their part on the next possession. They sacked Jacoby Brissett multiple times and even forced a false start before Arizona punted it away. There was still about half of the fourth quarter left at this point.
Unfortunately the Cowboys could not capitalize and to make matters worse Javonte Williams even fumbled. That about did it. All that was left was to watch the time tick down and reality to approach.
The Cowboys lost 27-17.
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