The Dallas Cowboys’ defense took the heat after the 33-30 overtime loss to the Cardinals, but the bigger problem was sitting on the other side of the ball.
For most of the game, Christian Parker’s group did enough to keep Dallas in position to win. With 1:35 left in the third quarter, the Cowboys had Jacoby Brissett and Arizona bottled up.
They had allowed only three points and had already forced multiple turnovers. Then Gardner Minshew entered, and the game flipped fast: four touchdowns on four straight drives.
That late collapse looks ugly on the stat sheet, but it came after the defense had been worn down. Dallas simply didn’t give that unit enough rest, and the offense never gave it a real breather when the game was there to be closed out.
The clearest example came on the Cowboys’ final touchdown drive. They moved 62 yards in six plays and took just 1:37 off the clock.
From the fourth quarter through overtime, Dallas had only one possession that lasted longer than two minutes. That isn’t on Parker.
In overtime, the defense did its job by getting a stop. The offense didn’t follow through, going three-and-out right after. George Pickens wasn’t involved enough, the Cowboys leaned too heavily on Javonte Williams and the run game, and the play-calling looked stale.
That approach didn’t work. Dallas averaged 2.4 yards per carry, yet Brian Schottenheimer still called 39 runs.
For a team built around one of the league’s most explosive offenses, the numbers were jarring. Minshew nearly outgained Prescott through the air even though he didn’t enter until the late third quarter. And there’s no clean explanation for Michael Wilson outproducing CeeDee Lamb.
The possession after the Cowboys recovered the onside kick was another missed chance. Dallas started at the 20 and should have put the game away. Instead, Lamb and Pickens were both on the sideline for two of the three plays as the Cowboys went jumbo with 2 TEs and extra OT, then settled for a field goal after a sack.
Why is Schottenheimer running 22 personnel in the red zone when he has two top-10 WRs?
Three drives began in Arizona territory, and Dallas came away with only nine points. Tyler Allgeier ran wild and the Cowboys couldn’t stop the run late, but for once the offense was the unit that made things harder on the defense. It was offensive stagnation, not defensive failure, that changed the game.
There was no late push, no edge, no urgency once Dallas thought it had the win in hand.
Christian Parker has taken plenty of blame this season, but this one belongs elsewhere. The defense gave the Cowboys every chance to finish it, and the offense didn’t close.
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