Inside The Star
The Dallas Cowboys have fallen, at home, to an Arizona Cardinals team that came into Week 9 at 2-5, and without their starting quarterback. The final score in this messy, mistake-filled game was 27-17.
It’s the second-straight loss for Dallas, bringing their record to 3-5-1, effectively burying them in the race for the NFC East.
For a front office that won’t stop spewing about incoming trades to bolster the roster before tomorrow’s trade deadline, it may be time to punt on the market as their playoff hopes continue to dwindle.
Let’s recap this crushing loss by looking at the offense, defense, and special teams performances that led to the final result.
You don’t need me to tell you the Cowboys’ offense was ugly for the vast majority of this game. The unit did not score a touchdown until Ryan Flournoy’s 4th-quarter grab.
Arizona gave them chances, even kicking off to start the game, but Dallas turned that possession into a turnover on downs.
From there, they had a negative 12-yard, 3-play drive that resulted in a Bryan Anger punt. It was his only punt of the night, but only because Dallas’s next drive went like this: a turnover, two field goal attempts, and another turnover on downs.
As I mentioned, the young Flournoy got into the end zone to snap that dreadful streak, before the Cowboys got the ball back when 7:11 on the clock, hoping to cut it to a one-score affair.
George Pickens hurt things with a 15-yard penalty before Javonte Williams fumbled away their last chance.
In total, the offense had four drives that ended in either a fumble or a turnover on downs. It was a bad, bad night for the offensive line, and a few of Dak Prescott’s top weapons.
Mistakes killed their chances, just as they did in Denver last week.
While they got going late, nobody can deny that this was yet another wildly infuriating game from the Dallas Cowboys’ defense.
They opened the game by allowing a 3-point, 15-play drive with multiple 3rd down conversions, before then allowing a touchdown on 8 plays. This was when it became clear that DaRon Bland was in for a long night.
The recently-extended former All-Pro got scorched by Marvin Harrison Jr. for four quarters, and it showed up in the drive summary.
Marvin Harrison Jr. vs DaRon Bland: pic.twitter.com/48FOymoE1B
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) November 4, 2025
Excluding a blocked punt, the Dallas defense gave up points to Arizona on every one of their drives heading into the fourth quarter. Simply put, that is never going to cut it in the National Football League.
The group turned it on in the fourth, and while you could credit that to the Cards’ foot coming off the gas, it was still an impressive showing from guys like Donovan Ezeiruaku, Jadeveon Clowney, and Dante Fowler Jr.
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