Tag: 2023 Season Week 3

4 Downs: Explosive plays blow up in Cowboys’ faces in Week 3 loss

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys uncharacteristically gave up some big plays that cost them Sunday. They did plenty of shooting themselves in the foot, too.

If you’re looking for the plays that cost Dallas their Week 3 game at Arizona, you’ll have your pick from a very long list as the previously unbeaten and top-ranked Cowboys looked lost for most of Sunday’s contest. Playing behind a patchworked offensive line, Dak Prescott led a largely ineffective passing game, and Micah Parsons helmed a defensive unit that played flat and uninterested in their first game without Trevon Diggs.

A staggering 13 penalties on the day gifted the Cardinals over 100 yards of field position. But the Redbirds were moving the ball quite well on their own- even without the help of the men in black and white- to the tune of 200-plus rushing yards and a total of seven explosive plays of 20 yards or more.

In a game that saw the Cardinals come in as double-digit home underdogs, it was the Cowboys who had to play catch-up, and they did right up until the game’s final minutes. What looked to be the easiest game of the first half of the Cowboys’ schedule turned out to be their first loss of 2023, an embarrassing 28-16 stumble that could very well come back to haunt them come December and January.

And when they look back at their latest debacle in the desert, these four plays will be among those that sting the most.

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Twitter reacts to Cowboys’ 28-16 desert disaster vs Cardinals

From @ToddBrock24f7: Social media had a field day with the Cowboys’ pathetic performance against the winless Cardinals.

Just when the national football media had settled in to the notion that the Cowboys were deserving of a top spot in power rankings and a place in the conversation about historically elite defenses… another trip to the Arizona desert once again provides a plot twist, this time upending the team’s sky-high September story.

Next to nothing went right for Dallas in Week 3, as the previously winless Cardinals reinforced the somber truth behind the old any-given-Sunday adage and brought the Cowboys and their fanbase crashing back down to earth over the course of an embarrassing 28-16 defeat. As usual, social media had plenty to say about all the action as it unfolded.

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Studs & Duds: Gallup returns in Arizona loss, but so do Cowboys’ red-zone woes

From @ToddBrock24f7: The forgotten WR tied for the team lead in catches in Week 3, but two offensive linemen had a day they would prefer to now forget.

After back-to-back weeks in which it felt like nitpicking to select any duds from the Cowboys lineup, Week 3 proved difficult for identifying very many studs. The team was thoroughly disappointing in nearly every phase of the game in their 28-16 loss to the previously winless Cardinals, with plenty of blame to go around in an uninspired, lackluster, sloppy, penalty-filled performance.

There were bright spots, even if they were hard to see sometimes. One receiver who had practically gone M.I.A. made a nice comeback to the top of the team’s targets chart, and the run game turned in good numbers, too, albeit behind a cobbled-together offensive line.

That front five left a lot to be desired. While quarterback Dak Prescott was sacked just twice, he rarely had a clean pocket to work from. And when Cowboys linemen weren’t being overpowered, it seemed, they were getting flagged for a variety of infractions. That proved difficult for Dallas to overcome; their confounding and ineffective play inside the Arizona red zone certainly didn’t help.

Here’s your studs and duds from Week 3’s fall back to earth.

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Penalties, poor red zone play doom Cowboys in 28-16 loss to Cardinals

From @ToddBrock24f7: Penalties and red-zone ineffectiveness are once again the story in Dallas after an uninspired loss to the previously winless Cardinals.

Cowboys Nation would like to respectfully request that all future trips to Glendale to face the Cardinals be canceled. The team’s latest visit to State Farm Stadium, as has been the case so many times before, was a thoroughly frustrating affair, this one ending in a disappointing 28-16 loss.

The first half of Sunday’s Week 3 game in Arizona couldn’t have gone much worse. The scene was set 90 minutes before kickoff when the club declared Zack Martin and Tyler Biadasz inactive with injuries. Then a third OL starter- Tyron Smith- was standing on the sideline when the offense took the field for the first time. The offense was largely uninspired, the defense gave up multiple big plays on the ground, and the winless Cardinals shocked Dallas by scoring on their first five possessions. Penalties proved to be a major bugaboo, too, as the Cowboys racked up a whopping 11 penalties… all before intermission.

The tide seemingly started to turn in the third quarter, highlighted by a brilliant Dak Prescott scramble that extended a deep Dallas drive. While it ended in a short field goal rather than a touchdown, momentum continued to shift the Cowboys’ way after an electrifying punt return by KaVontae Turpin. That big play was called back by yet another Dallas penalty, though, and a chance to close the scoring gap was denied by a 4th-and-goal play that went nowhere. Micah Parsons finally closed out the third quarter with a ferocious sack of Cardinals QB Joshua Dobbs (and his new signature celebration, which the linebacker has named “The Doomsday Death Crawl”), and Cowboys fans had hope it was a sign of the fourth-quarter rally to come.

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But more poor play calls in the red zone kept the Cowboys in neutral and settling for field goals, while the Cards put the pedal to the metal. Dobbs connected with Michael Wilson for a 69-yard explosive in which the Dallas secondary was completely lost, and Arizona punched the ball into the end zone shortly thereafter. Down by two scores with seven minutes to play, Prescott drove the offense into the red zone, but he then threw his first interception of the season to effectively shut the door on any sort of comeback effort.

The Cowboys ended with a staggering 13 penalties and gave up 222 rushing yards. That- and Prescott’s crunch-time pick at the goal line- will be the talk all week in Big D.

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WATCH: Rico Dowdle’s first NFL TD narrows gap vs Cardinals

From @ToddBrock24f7: Penalties have made a comeback for the Cowboys, but Dowdle and the Dallas offense are trying to get back on track.

A patchworked Cowboys offense may be starting to come to life after a slow and penalty-filled start.

After falling behind for the first time in the 2023 season, the Cowboys have found the end zone on a Dak Prescott-to-Rico Dowdle screen-pass hookup from 15 yards out.

A Brandon Aubrey PAT made the score 15-10 with just over five minutes to play before intermission.

The score was the first of Dowdle’s NFL career.

Overall, the Cowboys are having some trouble in Glendale. The defense has given up several big plays and missed multiple tackles on a slippery field at State Farm Stadium. Offensively, Dallas is playing behind three backup offensive linemen, one making his season debut, and a fifth- Terence Steele- still getting back into midseason form after a long injury rehab over the offseason.

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Penalties have also reared their ugly head for the Cowboys. After being flagged just 11 times over the first two games, Dallas was called on 10 infractions in the first half today and are down 21-10 at the intermission.

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WATCH: Brandon Aubrey’s 49-yard kick puts Cowboys on board in dicey 1st quarter

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys are off to a rough start, behind on the scoreboard for the first time this season.

Things are off to a rough start in Glendale.

With Zack Martin and Tyler Biadasz already made inactive prior to kickoff, the Cowboys offensive line was dealt an additional blow when it was announced that Tyron Smith would not start the Week 3 contest, despite being dressed.

Their absences have been obvious, with the Cowboys unable to get much going on offense. Defensively, it hasn’t been much better; the Cardinals led the day’s scoring to put Dallas behind for the first time this season.

On their next possession after an opening-drive field goal, Arizona scored a touchdown and kicked the point after to go up 10-0 for the briefest of moments. A Dallas penalty moved the ball closer for a Cardinals retry, and head coach Jonathan Gannon elected to take a point off the board and go for two.

The Cowboys defense held, making the deficit 9-0.

Dallas was able to salvage three points of their own before the quarter ended, coming off the leg of rookie kicker Brandon Aubrey. His 49-yard field goal made the score 9-3, and that’s where it remained when the opening 15 minutes were complete.

A fired-up Cardinals team, a piecemealed Cowboys offensive line, and a Dallas defense that has yet to find its footing- both figuratively and literally- are making this latest trip to the desert look like it could be yet another wild one, full of twists and turns.

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How to watch, stream, listen to, and wager on Cowboys-Cardinals in Week 3

From @ToddBrock24f7: Everything you need to know about catching all of Sunday’s action from Glendale live as it happens.

On paper, Week 3’s meeting between the Cowboys and Cardinals doesn’t seem to have much juice, as it’s called in NFL locker rooms these days. Winless Arizona is projected to finish the season as one of the worst team in football, while the Cowboys are off to a blistering start and making moves among the favorites in the NFC.

But that, as they also say, is why they play the games. Dallas comes into Glendale fresh off the stunning loss of one of their top defensive weapons in Trevon Diggs and with questions still swirling about whether the offense under Mike McCarthy’s playcalling is really ready to put the league on notice. Oh yeah, and three-fifths of the offensive line’s starters are questionable to even see the field. That, plus a history of strange things tending to happen when these two teams tangle in the desert should make for an interesting afternoon at State Farm Stadium.

Here’s what you need to know to follow the game in a variety of ways.

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Tyron Smith added to Cowboys’ injury report; questionable vs Arizona

From @ToddBrock24f7: The oft-injured veteran has a knee issue that now makes him a 50/50 prospect to play Sunday; two other OL starters are also questionable.

Perhaps the biggest area of concern for Cowboys fans heading into the 2023 regular season was the offensive line, both in terms of the health of the starters as well as the quantity and quality of the depth behind them.

Three weeks into the season, both will be tested even further.

The fabled “best five” linemen employed by the team still have never taken a snap together. And at the rate they’re going, Cowboys Nation shouldn’t be holding its collective breath for it to happen this Sunday in Glendale, as three-fifths of the starting offensive line is now at 50/50 to play.

Veteran left tackle Tyron Smith popped up on the team’s injury watch list on Saturday with a knee issue. Despite not appearing on the practice reports all week long, the eight-time Pro Bowler is suddenly considered questionable for Week 3’s game versus the Arizona Cardinals.

Smith joins right guard Zack Martin and center Tyler Biadasz as being questionable to play on Sunday. Martin was rolled up on last week against the Jets and came out briefly, though he said he could have stayed in the game had the score been closer. He did not practice all week.

Biadasz has been dealing with some sort of hamstring issue since Thursday. The team elevated two other centers from the practice squad for the gameday roster, perhaps signaling that his injury could well impact his playing status.

Martin, Biadasz, and Smith will reportedly travel with the team to Arizona, but determinations on their playing statuses will likely not come until Sunday.

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Smith, who will turn 33 later this year, has famously not played a full season since 2015 due to a variety of injuries.

Second-year lineman Tyler Smith is expected to make his 2023 debut after his own hamstring injury kept him sidelined in Weeks 1 and 2. Chuma Edoga exited last week’s game with an elbow injury; he is back to full go and could be inserted into the starting lineup depending on how much shuffling the Cowboys have to do within a unit that has given up just one sack this season.

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Cowboys offer optimism with final injury report of Week 3

From @ToddBrock24f7: Trevon Diggs is out. Zack Martin and Tyler Biadasz are officially questionable, but the team is spreading encouraging vibes on both.

Apart from the very obvious injury that dominated headlines in Cowboys Nation late Thursday, the team is actually in good physical shape heading into their Week 3 trip to Glendale, with no new adds to the final injury report of the week.

Cornerback Trevon Diggs will be moved to season-ending injured reserve soon, but for now, he’s the only player on the Cowboys active roster who’s been ruled out of Sunday’s contest.

Brandin Cooks, Tyler Smith, Donovan Wilson, and Jayron Kearse are all good to go, carrying no game-day designation whatsoever into the team’s meeting with the 0-2 Cardinals. Chuma Edoga is also fully back and will be ready to sub in on the line if needed.

Zack Martin did not participate for the third day in a row (Friday was just a walkthrough, as usual), but he’s only listed as questionable for Sunday. That’s more encouraging than a “doubtful” status would have been; Martin himself said he could have stayed in last week’s game and kept playing after getting rolled up late on versus the Jets.

As for center Tyler Biadasz, he was a DNP after a hamstring issue popped up on Thursday. Head coach Mike McCarthy said Biadasz was “sore” on Friday, but added that after conferring with the team’s medical staff, “they think he’ll be ready to go.”

The Cardinals kept the same four names on their Friday report that have been there all week. Two defensive players are out; another is questionable.

Cowboys add Trevon Diggs, Tyler Biadasz to Thursday’s injury report

From @ToddBrock24f7: The extent of Diggs’ knee injury was not yet known at the time that Thursday’s practice report was released. Biadasz has a hamstring issue.

Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs suffered a torn ACL during the team’s Thursday practice, as per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport. The All-Pro will miss the rest of the season if the reports are accurate, although the team has yet to make any public statement. Diggs was officially listed as “limited” on the day’s practice report, but the long-term prognosis seems to be much more bleak than that.

It’s a crushing blow to the Dallas defense, which was off to a historic start after the first two games of the 2023 season.

Center Tyler Biadasz is also a Thursday add, considered limited on Thursday with a hamstring issue.

On the upside, wide receiver Brandin Cooks, guard Chuma Edoga, and offensive lineman Tyler Smith were all upgraded from limited to full.

Here’s how the Thursday practice report shaped up for both Dallas and Arizona.