On Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys will look to get consecutive wins for the first time this season, and they’ll be at home to do it. They are big favorites to win the game, as their opponent comes into the matchup at 2-5, but that opponent has given Dallas hell.
The Arizona Cardinals have quietly been taking care of business against the Cowboys for a while now: over the past two decades, Dallas has beaten Arizona one time in nine matchups.
That’s right — the Cardinals are 8-1 against the Cowboys dating back to November 2006.
Cowboys-Cardinals Recent Wildly One-Sided Past
(Cowboys won 13 straight against Cardinals from ’90-96 as division rivals, but have lost 8/9 since end of ’06)
For us young fans, it often comes as a surprise that Arizona was a division rival with Dallas for 31 years. It originated with the Cardinals playing in St. Louis, Missouri, until 1988, before they moved west to become the Phoenix Cardinals.
Dallas dominated the matchup while the Cards were in-division, but since they left in 2001, it has been a complete reversal.
During their time in the same division, the Cowboys had a 71.4% win percentage against the Cardinals (45-18 W/L), but since the departure, that number has dropped to a 30.8% win percentage (4-9 W/L). That comes out to an over 40% plummet in the matchup for Dallas.
2008: Loss (OT)
2010: Loss
2011: Loss (OT)
2014: Loss
2017: Win
2020: Loss
2021: Loss
2023: Loss
2025: Loss
1-8 overall.
The craziest aspect of this recent poor stretch for the Cowboys here is that season record hasn’t mattered at all — the Cardinals are still beating Dallas when they come in as the lesser team.
In 2023, Dallas entered at 2–0, having outscored its first two opponents 70–10. Arizona was 0–2, yet the Cardinals beat the Cowboys 28–16.
Overall, Arizona is a stunning 6-0 since 2008 in matchups where Dallas entered with the better winning percentage. There’s no explanation for it, other than to say that this team really just has the Cowboys number, and they might once again in 2026.
Yes, Dallas has the better record to this point, but we have seen how shaky they are. It took quite a while last week for them to pull away from an Eagles team that is riddled with injuries, and they have lost to the Bucs and Packers, who have similar injury problems.
The Cowboys should be able to handle a 2-5 Cardinals team at home, but history says that means next to nothing. If they want to finally break this bizarre trend, they’ll have to avoid the same sloppy mistakes that have plagued them all season.
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