The Dallas Cowboys lost in the week 3 vs. the Arizona Cardinals by 16-28.

After two weeks of sheer dominance in the league, the Dallas Cowboys, led by their star quarterback Dak Prescott, suffered a setback at the hands of probably the weakest side of this season, the Arizona Cardinals. The team lost by a margin of 28-16. This is the first victory for the Cardinals, who had a poor start to the 2023 season.

It was really surprising for the Cowboys to give up 28 points in a game and that too against the Cardinals. The Cowboys were defensively brilliant in the last two games. In the first game, the team won by a margin of 40-0, and in the second against the New York Jets, they won by 30-10. It was a pure defensive masterclass by these two sides. This defensive gameplay was shattered against the Cardinals as lost by 12 points deficit.

A few days back, Trevon Diggs, the cornerback of the team, tore his Achilles in the team’s practice. He met with the fate of Aaron Rodgers and was ruled out of the entire season. The player was a prime figure in his team and his absence felt well in the match against the Cardinals. A lot of discussions were going around whether his replacement would be fit to replace him. It is now open to everyone that DaRon Bland, who replaced Diggs, did not have that much of an impact.

Speaking explicitly on the game, Dak Prescott expressed his somber mood and said, “We knew who we are. In that same sense, I’m sure the media got what it wanted. For us, there hadn’t been but one undefeated team. It sucks, it’s humbling, but to say it’s a wake-up call, we knew we had a lot of adversity and we just didn’t get it done.”

“When you look at this loss, we moved the ball up and down the field and just couldn’t score,” Prescott said. “We’ve gotta get back to the drawing board, and that starts with me making some throws and making some plays with my feet to try and get it done. We didn’t convert in the red zone. That’s the story of this game, period,” the QB knew exactly what went wrong with the team’s plays.

It was not a great 100th appearance for Dak. He covered 249 passing yards and completed 25 of 40 passes. The QB had one touchdown, however, ended up having one interception as well, his first of this season.

Offensive worry for the Cowboys piled up instantly post Cardinals loss

Despite winning the last two games, the Cowboys were not offensively brilliant. The inability in the offense line was clear in the game vs. the Cardinals. They were ugly in redzone, scoring just 10 points on five trips inside the 20-yard line.

Tony Pollard (#4) and Dak Prescott (#20) of the Dallas Cowboys (Via Michael Ainsworth)
The Cowboys ran 75 plays to the Cardinals’ 53 and still lost by 12 points. They advanced in the possession battle as well by more than nine minutes. However, everything went in vain since they lost the game.

Defensively, the Cowboys had a tough game. They allowed 386 yards combined in the first two games. However, against the Cardinals, the team allowed nearly 400 yards of coverage. They also committed 13 penalties for 107 yards.