With about 10 minutes left in the early games, it looked like the Dallas Cowboys were going to have a shot at a beautiful Sunday. Both the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the two teams Dallas was tied with for second place in the NFC playoff race, were trailing on their contests. Once both teams completed late comebacks, it may have felt to Cowboys fans that Sunday was not going to be a good day.
Those feelings were confirmed when Dallas came out flat in their contest against the Arizona Cardinals. Dallas found themselves down 22-7 prior to starting a fourth-quarterback comeback. The Cowboys closed it to three and appeared to make their defensive stand, but the referee ruled no fumble when replay showed it clearly was. As Dallas had no timeouts they couldn’t challenge, and the NFL refused to intercede as they have done in several other games this season. With the two minute warning gone, Arizona QB Kyler Murray was left to kneel down three times to end the game. Dallas’ 25-22 loss drops them to 11-5 on the season.
With Green Bay still to play on Sunday Night Football, the Cowboys now sit in the No. 4 slot in the NFC with one more game for them to go. Dallas is assured of hosting a Wild Card game at AT&T Stadium, and the way the seeding is now, it appears Murray and Arizona will be right back in two weeks to play that contest.
Arizona (11-5) is currently the fifth seed and the top wild-card entrant in the conference.
Things didn’t start out great for the Cowboys, who struggled to get their top receivers involved. Once they did, as Dak Prescott found Michael Gallup on a back-shoulder fade for a touchdown, it was still bad news.
Gallup twisted his left knee and was immediately ruled out. It appears the pending free agent may have suffered a season-ending situation.
Dallas mounted a furious comeback and made the game close, but weren’t able to close the deal as their four-game winning streak ended. While the referees had yet another atrocious game, the Cowboys didn’t do much to stem the tide themselves. Prescott finished with thee scores and no picks, but a late fumble gave Arizona their final three points and he routinely missed receivers in totaling just 226 passing yards.
The run game struggled as well with just 45 yards on the ground and Prescott being the leading rusher with just 20 yards on scramble plays. It didn’t help that Dallas missed an early field goal as Greg Zuerlein’s struggles continue.
Dallas will travel to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 18 as the Eagles are now firmly in the playoff picture. They haven’t clinched, but at 9-7 can earn a spot through a victory over Dallas or through a combination of losses by other teams still in the hunt.