Dallas Cowboys lose hold on No. 2 NFC seed in loss to Arizona Cardinals
So much for the talk of the Dallas Cowboys still holding out hope for the No. 1 seed and securing home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
The new concern for the Cowboys is whether they can beat a playoff-caliber team with a winning record?
And more to the point, can do anything with the Arizona Cardinals (11-5) and the dazzling former Texas high school phenom Kyler Murray, who continued to make AT&T Stadium his personal playground.
Murray ran for 45 yards and tossed two touchdown passes to lead the Cardinals to a 25-22 victory against the Cowboys (11-5).
He is now 9-0 at AT&T Stadium dating back to his high school days at Allen High School where he won three straight state titles, his college days at Oklahoma, where he won the Heisman Trophy and the Big 12 title and last season’s 38-10 victory against the Cowboys.
Team owner Jerry Jones said his personnel has to find a way to beat playoff caliber teams and Sunday was a prime example of what can happen when they don’t play their best game.
“Well, you’ve got to or you stop in the playoffs,” Jones said. “But you can lose to a team like this too real easy. So you bet your butt you can lose when you step there against a playoff team. You’ve got to be ready to have it all, get your execution right and make some good things happen.
Sunday’s outcome, which ended a four-game winning streak, dropped the Cowboys from the No. 2 seed in the playoffs to the No. 4. seed and it set up a possible rematch against the Cardinals in the wild-card round AT&T Stadium in two weeks.
The Cardinals, who remain one game behind the 12-4 Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West, are currently the fifth seed in the conference. Should Arizona overtake L.A. in the standings and the other division leaders hold serve, the Cowboys would host the Rams in the opening round of the playoffs.
None of it bodes well for a Cowboys team with just three wins against teams with a winning record all season, and none since October.
Their previous four game-winning streak came against the New Orleans Saints (8-8), the New York Giants (4-12) and two victories against the Washington Football Team (6-10).
Even though the Cardinals were riding a three-game losing streak, the Cowboys entered the game knowing it was a step up in class and were looking to prove themselves against a playoff team.
And although they rallied from a 22-7 fourth-quarter deficit, the Cowboys came up short but with no loss of confidence.
“Not discouraged,” said quarterback Dak Prescott, who passed for three touchdowns, including two during the comeback in the foruth quarter. But he also had a critcal lost fumble. “ We simply didn’t get it done as a team, starting with myself. Got to be better, all of us. We got to look at ourselves in the mirror. And find a way to come out with a win in a game like that.”
The Cowboys weren’t in the game from the outset and contributed to their own demise with 10 penalties for 88 yards.
Not only could they not contain Murray but they Cowboys failed to force a turnover for the first time in five weeks. And the running game was a no show with Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard combining for a meager 25 yards on 12 carries.
One week after tying a team record for points in a half with 42 points in the first half of a 56-14 rout of Washington, the Cowboys were punchless on offense in the first half against the Cardinals.
They were down 10-0 deep in the second quarter as holding penalties on tackles Tyron Smith and La’el Collins, and a false start on center Tyler Biadasz that led to a missed field goal killed their first three drives.
And when they finally got something going with a 21-yard touchdown pass from Prescott to Michael Gallup with 1:25 left in the second quarter, it proved to be bittersweet.
Gallup landed awkwardly on his left foot and he stayed on the ground clutching his left knee after the play. He did not return and Jones later revealed that Gallup sustained a torn ACL and is done for the season.
The Cardinals added a field goal before the half and then extended the lead to 19-7 on the first drive of the third quarter on a 19-yard pass from Murray to Antoine Wesley, their second scoring connection of the game.
It simply was not the Cowboys day.
They killed their own drives and extended Arizona drives all afternoon long. And when the Cardinals made a 26-yard field goal to extend the visitors’ advantage to 22-7, the Cowboys appeared to be left for dead.
But after Prescott tossed a 2-yard touchdown pass to Cedrick Wilson to make it a 22-14 game, the quarterback fumbled on the team’s next possession.
A six-yard run by Prescott ended with a fumble when linebacker Isiah Simmons knocked the ball out of his hands while he was fighting for extra yards. Another field goal by Matt Prater made the score 25-14 with 8:32 left.
But, still, Prescott and the Cowboys wouldn’t die.
A 75-yard drive and a 4-yard pass to Amari Cooper brought the Cowboys to within three points at 25-22 at the 4:42 mark.
But the Cowboys defense just couldn’t get Murray and the Cardinals offense off the field. Murray optioned left and right like he was in high school or college just looking to run out the clock.
The Cowboys got a glimmer of hope when running back Chase Edmonds appeared to fumble with just over two minutes left after it was punched out by defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence. The officials ruled Edmonds down on the field and because the Cowboys were out of timeouts, they couldn’t challenge the call.
While the Cowboys complained about the officials decision to initially rule Edmonds down, it was their own miscue in the third quarter that left them without a timeout.
On a fourth-and-5 from the 8, before Prater’s field goal took the field, the Cardinals left their offense on the field. A confused Cowboys sideline had already set their field goal defense on the field and then had to call a timeout when they realized the Cardinals had kept Murray on the field.
The Cardinals then brought the field goal team on the field and kicked the field goal.
It proved to be the difference on not being able to replay the fumble and another self-inflicted would that prevented the Cowboys from having a chance to win.
Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury said it was a planned dupe to force the Cowboys to burn a timeout. “Yeah, we did,” Kingsbury said. “And it ended up being a huge play in the game. They didn’t have that challenge left.”
The Cowboys end the regular season next Sunday at the playoff-bound Philadelphia Eagles (9-7), who are riding a four-game winning streak.
Even though they are likely locked into the No. 4 seed, the Cowboys have no plans as of now to rest their starters for the final game.
“I want see them play,” Jones said. “That’s playoff team that we’re playing in Philadelphia. We need to play another, we need to play a playoff game. And this is what gets you ready to go.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2022 at 6:39 PM.
