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.
Offensive Disaster: Mistakes Kill Cowboys In Week 9
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.
Defensive Mixed Bag: Early-Game Meltdown, Late-Game Redemption
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.
Of course, the late-game improvement couldn’t make up for the early-game disaster, as the defense allowed nearly 120 rushing yards and 260 through the air.
Special Teams Big Plays: Missed Opportunity, Game-Changing Play
It was a weird game for the special teams unit, as the usual stars couldn’t pull off their usual magic, while the unsuspecting guys came up huge.
The NFL’s best kicker, Brandon Aubrey, missed badly on a chance to tie the league’s new furthest-field goal record, while All-Pro return man KaVontae Turpin failed to produce his normal juice on kicks.
On the flip side, Sam Williams, who has been demoted to a special-teams majority role, sparked the team’s first touchdown with a blocked punt.
Marshawn Kneeland slid on it to recover it in the end zone, which provided some temporary hope in an otherwise dreadful night for these players, this coaching staff, and the front office as a whole.
At 3-5-1, who knows where the Dallas Cowboys head next.
The “MVP” charlatan QB1 led the team to 10 pathetic points!!! He was outdueled by a career backup, who is playing on his sixth team in ten years.
“Who knows where the Cowboys head next”? Well try an under .500 season record and NO PLAYOFFS.
BTW, adding insult to injury, the Eagles traded for Jaelan Phillips.
So it is Dak’s fault the line was a sieve and missed assignments ? It is Dak’s fault Fergusen dropped a goaline pass? It is Dak’s faultfor other guys’ personal fouls? It is Dak’s fault the Boy’s defnse is historically bad?
Cowboys have given up the seventh LEAST number of sacks per game in the league – 1.7
Cowboys as a team has 12 drops, 20 teams have more including to Chiefs, Chargers. Broncos have double that at 24.
All teams get penalties, personal foul or otherwise.
You got me somewhat on the defense, but really10 POINTS!!!
against the Cards (Seahawks laid 44 on them last week). And DP got 17 points the game before vs Broncos.
Results come when excuses leave.
This is just a poorly coached team that makes unforced errors . The talent is too close across the league to ever be so good you can commit multiple presnap penalties and foolish fouls plus missed assignments. Bottom line is bad coaching means losing football.
a Dallas Cowboys fan, since the 70’s I didn’t expect the Cowboys to lose to the Arizona Cardinals well it won’t get any easier looks like the Cowboys most likely will lose more than ten games in 2025