What We Saw: Week 3

Series Navigation

Dallas Cowboys @ Arizona Cardinals

Final Score: Arizona 28, Dallas 16

Writer: Michael James (@MikeoftheFF on Twitter)

The Arizona Cardinals hosted the Dallas Cowboys and looked to expand on their dominance over the Cowboys of late, having won six of their last seven matchups. Dallas was without CB Trevon Diggs, C Tyler Biadasz, and RG Zack Martin, and Arizona was without S Budda Baker, DT Carlos Watkins, LB Josh Woods, and QB Kyler Murray still not eligible to return until Week 5 at the earliest.

Dallas came out flat and undisciplined, collecting the most penalties in one half for the Cowboys since McCarthy took over as head coach. Arizona capitalized and played energized on defense and absolutely dominated the ground game. The cherry on top of the pile of yellow flags from the Cowboys put Matt Prater just within range to nail a 62-yard field goal to end the half.

Dallas would cut the deficit to 5 at the start of the fourth quarter but came no closer as QB Joshua Dobbs connected with rookie WR Michael Wilson on a 69-yard bomb to set up their next touchdown, and the Cowboys could not answer as QB Dak Prescott was intercepted in the end zone to seal the game for a Cardinals victory.

Three Up

James Conner – This man came ready to run some people over with a 7 YPC average on 14 carries
Tony Pollard – Over 120 yards rushing on 23 carries averaging 5.3 YPC
Kyzir White – Led the team in Tackles with a Tackle for Loss and Pass Defended and sealed the game for Arizona with an interception.

Three Down

Zach Ertz – After starting the first two games looking like a promising late-round pick for your TE spot, comes out this week with 2 catches for 6 yards.
Brandin Cooks – Tied for a team-high 7 targets but only caught 2 of them for 17 yards
Dak Prescott – Under 250 yards passing with his most attempts yet this season and only one touchdown with an interception to go with it

Cowboys

Quarterback

Dak Prescott: 25 for 40, 249 yards 1 Touchdown 1 Interception 3 carries for 24 yards

Prescott was without three of his starting linemen (two out, third on an apparent rotation/snap count) and it showed. The offensive line committed four holding penalties and another two false starts, and a common theme for the afternoon was Dak getting flushed out of the pocket early. Any rhythm gained by the offense seemed to get shut down and Dak would just put together 84 passing yards in the first half. The quality of the Cowboys’ passing game takes a hit when Dak has to scramble and the pass rush for the Cardinals had that happening all game long. The second half picked up tempo and started looking like it was coming together but seemed to hit a brick wall as soon as they entered the red zone. Out of five trips to the red zone, they only had one touchdown to show for it all day.

Notes

Was able to escape some sacks on the day and turn what would have been a big loss into a rushing gain
Converted 2 first downs with his feet
2 for 3 on deep ball throws

Missed Opportunities

Dak’s throws with feet planted compared to on the run are of stark contrast and it showed today
Multiple times his first read was to go downfield with the pass but the receiver would be covered and he’d have to look elsewhere
The interception in the red zone was a pass that should not have even been thrown. There were 3 defenders in the area of the receiver at the time of release.

TURN US ALL THE WAY UP!!!!!@KyzirWhite8 x #BirdGang pic.twitter.com/DzFYDPqoWv

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) September 24, 2023

Running Back

One of the few bright spots for this offense was the rushing attack. Both running backs finished the game with a 5.3 YPC average and the team overall picked up 185 yards on the ground.

Tony Pollard: 23 carries for 122 yards, 3 receptions on 3 targets for -1 yard

Notes

31-yard burst through the hole to get into the red zone
Impressive 5.3 YPC on 23 carries when only one rush went over 10 yards (aforementioned 31-yarder)

Missed Opportunities

Screen passes getting met at or behind the line of scrimmage on screen passes resulting in negative total receiving yards

Rico Dowdle: 4 carries for 21 yards, 3 receptions on 3 targets for 25 yards 1 Touchdown

Notes

Took a screen pass 15 yards pushing through contact to get into the end zone
Another impressive run after a screen pass to elude 7 defenders

No stopping @ricodowdle on his way to paydirt 💰

📺: FOX & NFL+ ➡️ https://t.co/yLMhJNTZjs pic.twitter.com/8Q5TRFMuk8

— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) September 24, 2023

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Hats off to the Cardinals secondary, this group played out of their mind for most of the game. They doubled up Lamb a lot which benefitted Gallup today. Their plan worked as they kept the passing yards under 250 despite 40 attempts. Four different receivers had 7 targets each today.

CeeDee Lamb: 4 receptions on 7 targets for 53 yards, 2 carries for 9 yards

Notes

Finally got separation in the second half to go deep for a 32-yard catch

Missed Opportunities

A 12-yard catch in the first half was nullified by a penalty for him pushing off
End zone target behind him
End zone target contact no-call
Spent most of the game with a Safety over him any time his route was more than 10 yards
Went most of the first half without a catch (1 for 7 yards at the 1-minute mark of the half)

Michael Gallup: 6 receptions on 7 targets for 92 yards

Notes

Elusive shake-off of a tackle to take a 4-yard pass into a 19-yard gain
Lead the team in deep ball targets
Drew a PI call that converted a third and long

Missed Opportunities

Had two end zone targets with a lot of contact between defender and receiver but no flags

Jake Ferguson: 5 receptions on 7 targets for 48 yards

Notes

Shook three tacklers to pick up 12 yards on a catch and run
Impressed with sudden change in direction ability for a TE benefiting his YAC

Missed Opportunities

Had a bad drop in the second half

Brandin Cooks: 2 receptions on 7 targets for 17 yards

Notes

Was looked for multiple times throughout the game in the red zone, however, it should be noted he was covered well on each attempt

Missed Opportunities

Made an impressive end zone catch but failed to get both feet in bounds
Another red zone target over the middle that was over his head
Was the end zone target of Prescott’s interception

Cardinals

Quarterback

Joshua Dobbs: 17 for 21, 189 yards 1 Touchdown, 6 carries for 55 yards

He starts the most games in one season in his career with today’s game. He gets his first NFL win as a starter in today’s game. He did it over the Cowboys who only allowed 10 points between 2 teams previous to this. He did it with an 80.9% completion rate. This was a seminar on game efficiency. They took advantage of a Dallas team that continuously shot themselves in the foot for four quarters today and earned the win.

Notes

You want big plays? On the second play of the game, he keeps it and runs for 44 yards
You want more big plays? Second to the last drive of the game he delivers a bomb to his open man for 69 yard catch
Able to frustrate the Cowboys with his elusiveness to avoid the sack and keep drives alive

Missed Opportunities

With only 4 incompletions, there isn’t a lot that he did miss
Didn’t reach 200 yards passing (didn’t need to)

Run Dobbs Run 🏃‍♂️@josh_dobbs1 x #BirdGang pic.twitter.com/GeDsDcACGy

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) September 24, 2023

Running Back

Cardinals came into this week facing a team that had allowed less than 70 rushing yards to the likes of Barkley, Hall, and Cook combined. No matter for Arizona, they put on a clinic on how to run block effectively. They came out with designed lineman pulls and even got their wide receivers in on blocking pulls across the line! The result was quite the show of runs where first contact to the back didn’t even come until well past the line of scrimmage (and one time just flat untouched to the end zone) 182 team rushing yards in the first half alone. Perhaps it’s the gap in time of possession in the second half heavily favoring Dallas, but in the second half, they only managed 40 total team rushing yards which I found somewhat surprising.

James Conner: 14 carries for 98 yards 1 Touchdown, 2 receptions on 2 targets for 18 yards

Notes

Sped past defenders going 20 yards before contact on one rush
Second drive alone 4 carries for 26 yards and a TD
71 yards rushing in the first half

Missed Opportunities

Stuffed on a 2pt conversion in first quarter

Keaontay Ingram: 5 carries for 13 yards, 1 reception on 1 target for 8 yards

Notes

Only used in the first half

he might literally be the fastest kid alive…@moore_rondale x #BirdGang pic.twitter.com/pN3A6PmYuc

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) September 24, 2023

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Marquise Brown: 5 receptions on 7 targets for 61 yards 1 Touchdown

Notes

Drew a 22-yard PI
Had a clutch sideline catch on 3rd and 8 for 23 yards to get them out of their own end zone
2-yard touchdown catch
Lead the team in targets

Missed Opportunities