Cowboys Morning, Week 3: The Humbling
Another trip out to Arizona reminds Dallas of the "Any Given Sunday" rule
You would have thought the Dallas Cowboys had won 22 straight games and were coming off a Super Bowl victory into 2023 with the way that people were talking about the test in Arizona last week. There was a virtual certainty that they would be 4-0 when they went to San Francisco in two weeks, so let’s just hurry up and get to that game to find out if the Cowboys are better than the team that has eliminated them in the 2021 and 2022 playoffs.
But, that is not how this league works and frankly, in retrospect, we probably should have seen it coming. Dallas beat both teams from New York in dominating fashion in the first two weeks by the final score of 70-10. That led to hours upon hours of praise and adoration to pump the tires of just how good they really were. Might they be a Super Bowl caliber team? Might they be the best defense in Cowboys history?
How about we require them to play at least a month before they are crowned?
Arizona must have had quite a laugh by the end of the afternoon as they tested the Cowboys defense to see if they were ready to stop a mid-tier rushing attack aimed right at them. They understood that Dallas has a great formula for playing with the lead, but what if you make them actually defend and play from behind a bit? Would things go the same way if the Cowboys defense were not leading the dance, but following? Could the Dan Quinn’s crew limit the Arizona Cardinals offense without Kyler Murray to less than seven different explosive plays – including five 20+ yard runs?
We now know the answer and it is not a fun one to reconcile.