The Dallas Cowboys very nearly overcame the complete lack of a run game, some poor officiating, and a missed field goal; but, they were ultimately done in by mismanagement of their timeouts in a critical loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon. Kyler Murray threw two touchdown passes to Antoine Wesley and the Arizona Cardinals held on to beat the Dallas Cowboys 25-22 in a matchup between two playoff-bound teams Sunday with seeding implications.
The outcome, combined with the Packers beating the Vikings Sunday night, eliminated the Cowboys (11-5) from contention for the NFC’s No. 1 seed. The Cardinals (11-5) are still a game behind the Los Angeles Rams in their division with LA rallying to beat Baltimore 20-19 but the win kept their hopes of a division title alive heading into the regular season finale next week. Arizona ended a three-game skid a week after backing into the postseason while stopping the NFC East champion’s four-game winning streak.
Murray improved to 8-0 as a starter at AT&T Stadium. Most of those victories were as a Texas high school playoff star, but the past two have been as a pro after last season’s 38-10 rout of the Cowboys. The Cardinals’ victory over Dallas in 2020 was the first game after Dak Prescott‘s season-ending ankle injury. The Cowboys star quarterback’s presence was felt in a fourth-quarter comeback that fell short. The slow start on offense and numerous other mistakes and obstacles proved too much for Dak and the Cowboys offense to overcome in the end.
Prescott’s threw three TD passes in this game. The third TD pass, a 4-yarder to Amari Cooper, and a 2-point conversion toss to Cedrick Wilson pulled Dallas within three with five minutes remaining. Dallas was out of timeouts and couldn’t challenge when officials ruled Chase Edmonds down near the sideline. The ball came out and was recovered by Osa Odighizuwa before the two-minute warning but Edmonds was ruled down by contact. It appeared possible the call could have been overturned but the Cowboys could not challenge the play outside of the two minute warning and no intervention occurred from NFL headquarters. The Cowboys were forced to waste a time out when Kliff Kingsbury, by error or design, sent out both Kyler Murray and kicker Matt Prater on a fourth and goal in the third quarter. The Cowboys panicked and called a timeout before Arizona did and the Cardinals ended up settling for three points.
The Cardinals reached 25 points for just the second time in seven games. Their first scoring drive was sparked by a successful fake punt in the second quarter when Jonathan Ward made an improbable catch of upback Chris Banjo’s throw. A pass interference penalty would have made it a first down even if Ward didn’t make the catch. That was a frustrating drive for the Cowboys defense with a couple of PI calls and a missed call on a blatant hold on DeMarcus Lawrence. Lawrence was in pursuit of Kyler Murray when Arizona right tackle Josh Jones reached out and grabbed him by the collar out of desperation after getting beat off the line of scrimmage. The Cowboys had the Cardinals pinned deep in their own territory at the moment and looked to get the ball back with favorable field position. Lawrence pleaded with the referee to no avail as Murray rolled out to the left and converted on third down. A holding call would have negated that conversion and most likely ended that drive before it started. Instead, after the fake punt and another big penalty call went Arizona’s way and the drive resulted in 7 pts for Arizona.
The Cowboys were the healthiest they’ve been all season coming in, but lost receiver Michael Gallup to a left knee injury on his 21-yard TD catch on their first score late in the first half. Randy Gregory also appeared bothered by a leg injury. That is unwelcome news for a Cowboys team hoping to make a late post season run.
Murray was 26 of 38 for 263 yards and two touchdowns while Prescott finished 24 of 38 for 226 yards with a lost fumble when the Cowboys were down eight early in the fourth quarter. Prescott’s fumble set up the last of Matt Prater’s four field goals for a 25-14 lead. Arizona’s Antoine Wesley had four catches for 30 yards, while Christian Kirk (43 yards) and A.J. Green (42) each had a long catch to set up scores.
The Cardinals shut down the struggling Dallas running game, holding Ezekiel Elliott to 16 yards on nine carries. Prescott was the leading Dallas rusher with 20 yards. To make matters worse for Dallas, it seemed as though every single time the Cowboys were able to break a decent run to convert a first down, the play was immediately called back for offensive holding.
Cowboys players and coaches publicly showed frustration with the officiating in their post game comments. Although it appears as though the Cowboys cannot depend on the referees to do them any favors, they cannot seek refuge in things that are beyond their control. They need the running game to show some signs of life and they need to find a way to get the ball down the field to their big play receivers. Making excuses about the bad officiating, regardless of the validity, is not the type of accountability that a championship team normally possesses. The Cowboys are a playoff team now. In the playoffs, if they can’t overcome the bad calls that will no doubt occur, they might as well just forfeit the game. Hopefully, despite the comments made public, the team has a more productive approach to potential poor officiating heading into the playoffs.
*Photo by Joe Glorioso; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode