Cowboys fall to Arizona
By Elwyn Henderson
The 3-4-1 Dallas Cowboys returned to AT&T Stadium in Arlington Monday night fresh off their blowout loss to the Denver Broncos eight days earlier to entertain the Arizona Cardinals on Monday Night Football. Arizona came into the game with a 2-5 season record and came into the game with starting quarterback Kyler Murray sidelined with an injury. Taking his place was veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett. 92,211 fans watched and the Cowboys failed miserably, losing the game 27-17 and falling to 3-5-1 on the season. They have their bye week next Sunday before heading to Las Vegas on November17th to take on the Raiders in another Monday Night Football contest.
Former President George W Bush was in attendance at the game and met the team captains and Referee Adrian Hill at midfield and he tossed the coin. Arizona won the toss and elected to kick off to begin the game.
Chad Ryland kicked the ball away to KaVontae Turpin who returned the ball up to the 35 and Dak Prescott brought the Cowboys offense on the field for the first time in the game.
The offense moved down the field with precision until they got down to the Arizona 7 and facing a 4th and goal Coach Brian Schottenheimer rolled the dice and came up with snake eyes as Prescott was sacked at the 11 for a 4-yard loss and the ball turned over to the Cardinals on downs at that point.
Brissett led his team down to the Dallas 29 and on a 4th down Ryland kicked a 48-yard field goal to put the visitors up 3-0 with 3:38 left in the first quarter. The drive was 15 plays, 60 yards and took 6:54 off the clock.
Turpin returned the ensuing kick up to the 23 and Prescott and company returned to the field hoping for better results than their first possession. Thanks to a holding call though it wasn’t in the cards and Bryan Anger was forced to punt from his 11. The kick went to the Arizona 49 and was returned to the Dallas 47.
Brissett led his team down the field and the drive ended when Brissett hit Marvin Harrison, Jr on a 4-yard TD pass with 12:17 left in the first half. yla Rnd connected on the PAT and Arizona took a 10-0 lead. The drive was 8 plays, 47 yards and took 4:45 off the clock.
After another Turpin return the Cowboys set up on their 26 for their third possession. They moved down to the Cardinals 24 and after Jake Fergus caught a key third down pass the was hit and fumbled the ball and Budda Baker recovered the loose pigskin at the 24 ending the Dallas threat with 6:30 left in the first half.
The defense finally got it together and forced a Pat O’Donnell punt. The kick was blocked up the middle by Sam Williams and Marshawn Kneeland recovered the ball in the end zone for a Dallas TD with 3:58 left in the half. Brandon Aubrey was true on the extra point kick and Dallas was back in the game, trailing 10-7.
Arizona got the ball back and moved methodically down the field. The drive ended when Brissett ran a quarterback keeper up the middle from the 1 into the end zone with 49 seconds left in the half. Ryland added the extra point and the Arizona lead was 17-7. The drive was 11 plays, 34 yards and took 3:09 off the second quarter clock.
Dallas got the ball back and on the final play of the half Aubrey came in to try a 68-yard field goal. The kick was wide right and the half ended with the Cardinals in the lead 17-7 and they were set to receive the second half kickoff.
Brissett wasted little time after the second half kickoff, getting his team into the end zone again, as they took just 3 plays and 2:12 to move 74 yards for their third TD of the game. The score came on a 12-yard pass from Brissett to Trey McBride with 12:48 left it the third quarter. Ryland’s extra point was good and two win Arizona was humiliating Dallas 24-7.
Prescott led the team down to the Arizona 8 where Aubrey came in on fourth down and booted a 26-yard field goal narrowing the gap to 24-10 with 7:15 left in the third quarter. The drive was 12 plays, 64 yards and took 5:33.
Arizona drove down to the Dallas 16 on their next possession and on 4th down Ryland kicked a 34 yard field goal with 2:31 left in the third period putting the visitors up 27-10.
The Cowboys moved down to the Cardinals 21 as the third quarter ended and they faced a 4th and 3 on the first play of the final stanza. For obvious reasons Schottenheimer left the offense in knowing to have any chance at all for a comeback the team had to find a way to end the drive with a touchdown. A pass intended for CeeDee Lamb fell incomplete inside the 20 and the visitors took over at their 21 with 14:54 left in the game.
Dallas forced a three and out and got the ball back at their 22 after a 10-yard penalty on the punt return. The offense finally got into the end zone when Prescott hit Ryan Flournoy with 10:51 left in the game from 5 yards out. Aubrey hit the extra point and Dallas was back within 10, trailing 27-17. The drive was 7 plays, 78 yards and took 2:01 off the clock.
Arizona took over on their 33 after Aubrey’s kickoff and the Cowboys knew they had to get a stop if they wanted to have a chance to make a comeback. The defense rose to the occasion and forced a punt on 4th and 24 from their 30. Turpin took the kick at his 31 and returned it to the 37 and Prescott led the offense back on the field with 7:11 left in the game.
The team moved down the field but on a third down play Dallas fumbled the ball at the Cardinals 37 and Arizona recovered that their 37 and took over with 4:34 left in the game.
The ball turned over on downs with 2:31 left and Dallas took over on their 36 hoping to get a quick Td but on the first play Prescott was sacked for an 18 yard loss. An incomplete pass brought the game to the 2-minute warning. On the next play he was sacked for another 10 yard loss and on 4th down he threw an interception at the Cardinals 39 with 1:19 left in the game.
Brissett brought his unit out and they ran one play and the clock expired giving the Cardinals their third win of the season by a 27-17 count.
Coach Brian Schottenheimer came before the media following the game and he was asked if he thought the bye week could help the team make needed changes to get back on track.
“Yeah, I think it does. I think it gives you time to find answers and find solutions and ask more difficult questions and look at everything. I mean, you’re really, you’re looking at where you stand at this point. And again, I see a team that’s very inconsistent, and that starts with me. You know, that’s not on them. That starts with me. We got to play better offensively.”
When Dak Prescott came in to face the media after the inexcusable performance he was asked his thoughts on the subpar outing for the team and also for himself.
“Disappointing and very frustrating. Knowing that you’re better than that and going out there and not putting up a performance close to your standard or even the expectations or what you thought you could do and expected to do against this team. Credit to those guys. That’s the beauty of the NFL. Games, plays, stats, none of that is done on paper. You’ve got to go out and you’ve got to earn it that night with everything taken into account. They kicked our ass on both
sides of the ball. They limited the possessions early. We don’t score on the first drive. We don’t score in the red zone. The next drive, we went three or four and out. Then, we fumble when we were going to get a field goal. Then we try to kick a 70 yard field goal to even get points before half. That makes it tough. Then trying to make adjustments in the second half, but when you’re down like that in an NFL game, we still had a chance. We didn’t take advantage of the opportunities and the moments we had in the second half. Very frustrating.”
The Mirror will be covering the game against the Raiders on Monday night, November 17th from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Hopefully, we’ll have a better game to report on then.