‘Tale Of Two Halves’: Dallas Cowboys Fall To Arizona Cardinals 33-30 In Overtime After Blowing 14-Point Fourth-Quarter Lead
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys held the Arizona Cardinals to 3 points in the first half Sunday at AT&T Stadium. Arizona scored 30 after halftime, and the last 3 came on a 42-yard field goal by Chad Ryland with 2:53 left in overtime that gave the Cardinals a 33-30 win.
Dallas led 24-10 with 14:20 left in regulation and 30-24 with 1:09 to play. The loss dropped the Cowboys to 3-5, six days after a 38-21 win at Philadelphia on Monday Night Football. Dallas has not won consecutive games this season. Arizona also moved to 3-5 and has won five straight regular-season meetings between the teams.
It was 14-3 at halftime, and Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said the message he gave his players afterward was that a team in that position has to put its opponent away.
“I think it was a tale of two halves for sure,” Schottenheimer said. “What I told the guys is we obviously have to learn to finish in all three phases. We had a chance to do it a lot of different ways. Got to get stops on defense. Had a four-minute opportunity that we didn’t use to try to put the game away. Had a chance for a long field goal before the end of the first half.”
“I think it’s all three phases,” Schottenheimer continued. “It really was a tale of two halves. And the second half was not good enough. And when you have people down, you’ve got to finish them. And that’s the most disappointing thing.”
Cowboys Build 14-3 Halftime Lead On Defense And Turnovers
Dallas built its lead on defense. Arizona drove to the Dallas 1 on its second possession, and Caleb Downs and Kenny Clark stopped a fourth-and-1 run for no gain with 6:17 left in the first quarter. On Arizona’s next possession, Shemar James intercepted Jacoby Brissett and returned it 33 yards to the Arizona 5. Javonte Williams fumbled at the 2 on the second play of the ensuing drive, and tight end James Mitchell fell on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown with 2:33 left in the opening quarter.
Dak Prescott made it 14-0 with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Flournoy on third-and-1 in the second quarter. The drive covered 85 yards in 12 plays and took 7:05 off the clock. Ryland answered with a 37-yard field goal with 1:13 left in the half.
With 21 seconds left before halftime, DeMarvion Overshown forced a fumble that Dallas recovered at the Arizona 47. Williams ran for 4 yards, the Cowboys used their last timeout with 4 seconds left, and Brandon Aubrey missed a 61-yard field goal wide right. Schottenheimer said Aubrey has no preference on which hash he kicks from.
“Brandon doesn’t care. No, he doesn’t care,” Schottenheimer explained. “We had a mechanism where we’re trying to get as close as we can and get down and call the timeout. I thought there was a little bit more there. I thought we could have got a few more yards. We had a little two-play package. But we trust Brandon to make those.”
The Cowboys opened the third quarter with a 15-play, 70-yard drive that took 8:23 and ended with Aubrey’s 31-yard field goal for a 17-3 lead. A 35-yard catch by George Pickens on that drive was wiped out by an offensive holding penalty. On Arizona’s next series, Donovan Ezeiruaku and Von Miller recorded back-to-back sacks for a combined loss of 26 yards, and the Cardinals punted on fourth-and-31.
Gardner Minshew II, Tyler Allgeier Lead Cardinals Back From 17-3 Down
Arizona coach Mike LaFleur replaced Brissett with Gardner Minshew II with 1:35 left in the third quarter. Brissett was 10-of-23 for 119 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 1 interception, and he was sacked four times. Minshew finished 17-of-23 for 188 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions, all three scores coming in the fourth quarter.
On Minshew’s second snap, Tyler Allgeier ran 63 yards up the middle for a touchdown that cut the lead to 17-10. Arizona had already lost two running backs to injuries in the first half. Allgeier finished with 147 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, 124 of those yards on four second-half carries, and he added 5 catches for 44 yards and a touchdown.
Arizona’s run game caught fire after halftime, and the Cowboys gave up too many explosive plays.
“They hit some huge runs,” Schottenheimer said. “Give Mike credit for making the change, making the move. Minshew came in there and gave him a spark.”
Prescott scored on a 5-yard run on third-and-5 early in the fourth quarter. A 37-yard catch by Pickens and a 23-yard pass interference penalty had set Dallas up at the Arizona 2, where Williams lost 3 yards on two carries. The touchdown put the Cowboys ahead 24-10 with 14:20 left.
Allgeier ran 52 yards on Arizona’s first play of the next drive. Minshew finished it with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Allgeier, after two Arizona false starts pushed the Cardinals back from the 3 and the 1. Dallas responded with a 15-play, 56-yard drive that took 6:53 and stalled at the Arizona 17, and Aubrey made a 35-yard field goal for a 27-17 lead with 3:54 left.
The Cowboys had the run bottled up most of the day before letting a couple of plays get away from them.
“I don’t know,” Clark said. “He just did a better job throwing the ball, I guess. They pretty much ran the same thing. Two of the running backs came out early in the game, so they only had 22. And they started running a little bit more stretch and pin and pull. That got out on us.”
“And he did a good job at throwing the ball,” Clark added. “Stepped up in the pocket, made some really good throws. He’s a little bit more mobile than Brissett. But at the end of the day, we got to get him down.”
Cardinals Tie It After Cowboys Recover Onside Kick
Dallas won a challenge on the next Arizona drive, overturning a 27-yard catch by Michael Wilson at the Dallas 2. Two snaps later, a roughing-the-passer penalty on Rashan Gary wiped out a third-down incompletion, and Minshew hit Trey McBride for a 14-yard touchdown with 2:11 left.
Ryland’s onside kick traveled 9 yards. Flournoy recovered it and returned it 19 yards, and an illegal touch penalty on Arizona gave Dallas the ball at the Arizona 20. The Cowboys lost 3 yards on three plays, a 6-yard sack of Prescott among them, before Aubrey made a 41-yard field goal for a 30-24 lead with 1:09 to play.
Prescott wished the offense had been a little more aggressive on that possession.
“Maybe the drive after the onside kick,” Prescott said. “Just that drive in general. Wanting to be aggressive, understanding. Now knowing what was going to come afterwards, right? That 6 points wasn’t enough. And that would probably be the main moment, yeah.”
Arizona had no timeouts left and needed 1:03 to go 80 yards. Minshew completed passes of 21 and 27 yards to Wilson and found him again for a 13-yard touchdown with 6 seconds remaining. Ryland’s extra point went wide left, and the game went to overtime tied 30-30 after Dallas threw one incompletion and took a knee.
Miller did not see anything different schematically from Arizona after the change at quarterback.
“They just had more shots on goal, kind of like soccer,” Miller said. “If you let the striker shoot multiple goals, you let them have multiple opportunities, the ball’s going to start going in, and that’s what happened today. Instead of dragging them to the deep end and putting them under, you keep giving them opportunity after opportunity. Especially towards the end of the game, they made the best out of the opportunities they were given.”
Cowboys Go Three-And-Out After Choosing To Kick In Overtime
Dallas won the overtime coin toss and elected to kick. Quinnen Williams sacked Minshew on Arizona’s first play, and the Cardinals punted after three snaps. The Cowboys went three-and-out, losing 5 yards on a 2-yard run, a pass for CeeDee Lamb that was knocked down at the line, and a 7-yard sack on third down. Arizona answered with an 8-play, 44-yard drive that featured six straight running plays after an 8-yard catch by McBride, and Ryland made the winning kick from 42 yards.
Two of Prescott’s late throws to Lamb were batted at the line, one on third down before Aubrey’s 35-yard field goal and one in overtime.
“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 noted. “In four minutes, we have to do that.”
Arizona went three-and-out on the first overtime series, which put the onus on the Dallas offense to score.
“It’s 0-0. Nothing else matters at that point,” Prescott explained. “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.”
Dak Prescott, Jerry Jones Field Questions On Brian Schottenheimer As Cowboys Fall To 3-5
Prescott finished 19-of-29 for 195 yards, 1 touchdown, and 0 interceptions, and he ran 7 times for 20 yards and a touchdown. Lamb caught 7 passes for 58 yards. Pickens had 2 catches for 48 yards on 4 targets, and Flournoy had 3 catches for 38 yards and the touchdown. Arizona sacked Prescott four times for 27 yards.
Dallas finished with 168 net passing yards, and Prescott will need the film to know what Arizona took away.
“I don’t have an answer for that. I wish I did,” Prescott said. “Yeah, to say we were under 200 yards, that’s crazy. Yeah, it was a game I thought we were going to win.”
Dallas ran 39 times for 93 yards, an average of 2.4 yards per carry. Williams carried 24 times for 56 yards. Arizona outgained Dallas 467-261 and ran for 202 yards, and the Cowboys converted 6-of-16 third downs.
Pickens was targeted four times. Prescott was not sure of the number afterward and said he goes through his reads to the open receiver.
“If I had the answer, we’d get him involved,” Prescott said. “I’m not trying to be rude or whatever it is, but he made some plays any time the ball went his way. He came up with them. Right, he had the one, unfortunately, came back for a holding. There’s another one. I just tried to give him a chance. I felt Budda coming over there pretty fast, so I couldn’t put it with as much air as I’d have liked. Just tried to give him a chance. DB made a good play.”
“I still got to go back and watch the film,” Prescott continued. “Not sure about even how many targets he had. As I tell you all before, I go through the reads, try to throw it to the open guy and stay consistent and true to that. And so I’ve got to go back and look at the film and see if I missed him, see if we could have went to him more, see if we could have went to CeeDee more. I feel like it was a game that CeeDee didn’t have as many catches as per usual. But we still had a chance to win and should have won it.”
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said the loss will be very difficult for every player and coach, and for him.
“We had innumerable chances to win this game and didn’t do it,” Jones said. “And I know everybody, our fans especially, but everybody is disappointed. We came out the second half and were a shadow of ourselves. So there’s nothing to point to other than we just weren’t a good team the second half.”
Dallas had not had many games this season in which it played well enough to win and then did not, Jones said.
“And we had a great chance right at the end to win the game and had everybody out there that can win games for us,” Jones explained. “And, of course, didn’t get it done. So it was a couple of games within the game, really, that was also telling. And we just did not play well enough at all to win that ball game. Not well enough at all after you had the lead the way we did and had the opportunities we had to win that ball game. So it’s an indictment of the whole show.”
Jones said the Cowboys are continually evaluating, though he said re-evaluate was not the right word.
“We’re not going to get into anything. That’s not in my mind at this time,” Jones said. “But the main thing that’s in my mind is we tee it up for those kind of spots to win it. We really do want those situations. Call for it. Bring it on. And we got it and didn’t get it.”
In Jones’ mind, Dallas had a real chance to win in two or three situations Sunday and did not take any of them.
“None of us are getting it done, and that should be my concern,” Jones said. “So I’m not pointing at Schotty. I’m not pointing at anybody, but none of us have it done.”
Prescott, Teammates Push Back On Blaming Schottenheimer
For Prescott, the failure to finish starts with him and extends to every player and coach on the roster.
“It’s all of us. It’s all of us. Don’t put the blame on one person. Simple as that,” Prescott said. “I think that’s weak. I think that’s cowardly. This game is about all, as I said, all 11 that touch the field and every person that has a part in it, coaches and support staff. And it’s never just one person’s fault.”
“Even if I go out there and throw a bunch of interceptions, it’s never just truly one person’s fault,” Prescott added. “And so, yeah, don’t take the easy and cheap way out. This is about us, and it’s about us backing him up and backing one another up, and we’ll have to show it.”
Schottenheimer stood in front of the team after the game and hit the players with the truth. Dallas also lost 24-16 at home to Tampa Bay on Oct. 8.
“I’m going to always own my part of this as a head football coach,” Schottenheimer said. “It starts with me. And there are certainly things that I need to do better. But as a football team in all three phases, I can point out three, four, five, six plays right off the top of my head. I’m not going to. And so a lot of football left.”
Clark said he has full confidence in the coaching staff and that the plan is there for players to execute. Miller, a two-time Super Bowl champion, compared the staff to a parent whose children do not always reflect how they were raised.
“The product that went out there is not a reflection of our coaching staff,” Miller explained. “This is pro sports. This is not parenting. So at the end of the day, the buck has to stop somewhere. Somebody’s going to get the blame. But my opinion, this is just me, I don’t know nothing about football. I only played 16 years. We’ve got great coaches. We’ve got a great coaching staff. And that’s not a reflection of how they coach us and get us ready every week.”
Caleb Downs In Concussion Protocol As Dallas Heads To Indianapolis
Schottenheimer said Downs has a concussion and is in the protocol. He said the team will see what comes with P.J. Locke, who was hurt in overtime, and that Jake Ferguson and Joey Porter Jr. have ankle injuries that will require more testing. Ferguson was ruled out in the third quarter, and Downs was ruled out in the fourth.
James led Dallas with 9 tackles to go with the interception. Quinnen Williams had 7 tackles and 2 sacks, and the Cowboys sacked Arizona quarterbacks five times for 42 yards. Aubrey made 3-of-4 field goals, from 31, 35, and 41 yards.
Dallas visits the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 8 at Lucas Oil Stadium. Kickoff is set for noon CT on FOX. The Cowboys return home to host the San Francisco 49ers on Nov. 15.
