‘The Best Field Goal Kicker’: Dallas Cowboys Chose To Kick In Overtime And Never Got Brandon Aubrey A Shot Against Arizona Cardinals

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys won the overtime coin toss Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals and elected to kick. They never got the ball into field goal range, and Chad Ryland’s 42-yard field goal with 2:53 left gave Arizona a 33-30 win at AT&T Stadium.

Under the NFL’s regular-season overtime rules, both teams are guaranteed a possession. Quinnen Williams sacked Gardner Minshew II on Arizona’s first play, and the Cardinals punted after three snaps. Dallas started at its own 29 and lost 5 yards on a 2-yard run, a pass knocked down at the line, and a 7-yard sack on third down. Arizona then went 44 yards in eight plays, six of them runs, for the winning kick.

Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones did not want to discuss the decision. In his mind, Dallas had a real chance to win in two or three situations Sunday and did not take any of them.

“I don’t have anything to say about our decisions other than you’ve got to work at it to get in a position to have a chance to win this ballgame,” Jones said. “Really have a real chance to win it, in my mind, at least in two or three situations. And we didn’t do it.”

Brandon Aubrey made field goals of 31, 35, and 41 yards in regulation and missed a 61-yarder wide right at the end of the first half. He did not attempt a kick in overtime.

“We got the best field goal kicker, in my view, in the country, and we got to get him in a position to do it,” Jones explained. “We did not do it, and that is a criticism of everybody concerned here.”

Jones stood by calling the loss an indictment of the whole show.

“Exactly. Exactly. Well, that’s what I’m saying about that. It really is,” Jones said. “You expect to be able to, if you get the ball in the hands of the people you want it. You expect to when those kinds of situations are there. It didn’t work for us. That’s what I’m saying.”

Brian Schottenheimer Says Tipped Passes Stalled Cowboys Late

Two of Dak Prescott’s late throws to CeeDee Lamb were batted at the line, one on third down before Aubrey’s 35-yard field goal with 3:54 left in regulation and one in overtime. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer credited Arizona’s interior linemen.

“A couple tipped passes. You guys saw that,” Schottenheimer said. “They did a nice job with the line of scrimmage. We had CeeDee coming open on a little choice route underneath. And then same thing, we’re trying to throw a little out route, and they did a nice job with their interior tipping the ball. We’ve got to keep their hands down.”

“But we get the ball back with a chance to go and put the ball game away,” Schottenheimer continued. “In four minutes, we have to do that.”

Arizona held Dallas to 93 rushing yards on 39 carries, and Javonte Williams’ 2-yard run opened the overtime possession.

“First run got stuffed, second ball got tipped. And I want to see it,” Schottenheimer explained. “But they did a great job against our running game tonight. And you have to take a look and see why.”

Prescott approaches an overtime possession as a fresh start.

“It’s 0-0. Nothing else matters at that point,” Prescott said. “So we’ve just got to go out there. And defense did a good job stopping them. We’ve got to go score. And obviously when we don’t, we put our defense in a tough spot. And if you ask me personally, nothing up to that moment even matters anymore.”

Malachi Lawrence, Tyler Smith Say Cowboys Did Not Stay Consistent

Malachi Lawrence, the 23rd overall pick in the 2026 draft, said the defense needed to repeat its first overtime stop on Arizona’s second possession.

“Just that consistency, I’d say. Like, defense, we got out there and got a three and out in overtime, the first drive,” Lawrence said. “And so we need a second time they come out, we need to do that again. We need to stay consistent on that. We just weren’t.”

Tyler Smith would have liked to execute better personally on the final regulation drive and in overtime. He said there were blocks he did not do well enough on.

“My teammates trust me. My teammates depend on me. So I feel like I have to own my 1/11th to the maximum,” Smith said. “We played good. We had a 6-point lead going into one minute left in the game, whatever. But we had a chance to put the game away. I didn’t play well enough down the stretch.”

The Cowboys fell to 3-5. Dallas visits the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 8 at Lucas Oil Stadium. Kickoff is set for noon CT on FOX.