ARLINGTON, Texas — One week ago, the Dallas Cowboys defense came alive in the second half against the Philadelphia Eagles to help get the team back in the win column. On Sunday, against the Arizona Cardinals, they were, far and away, playing their best game of the 2026 season — until they found themselves doing the exact opposite.
The second half saw no carryover from the first half dominance over the Cardinals that held them to only three points and saw the Cowboys hitting hard, executing well and dictating the terms of engagement. Instead, they allowed backup quarterback Gardner Minshew and backup running back Tyler Allgeier (not Jeremiyah Love) own the second half.
They did make a stand in the first drive of overtime, but it was too little, too late, aided by another poor outing by the offense that wasn't relegated to any one quarter.
"You have a great second half versus Eagles, and you have a great first half in this game, so you think you're on the right track, and then you crap the bed the second half," Overshown said candidly of the Cowboys defense in the 33-30 overtime loss at home. "I don't know. We have to see what exactly went wrong, but it's just — it can't happen. It just can't happen."
And so it goes that the Cowboys have still not defeated the Cardinals, ever, at AT&T Stadium and only once out of the last 10 matchups stretching back to 2008.
For all the strides the defense has made to this point, it was all washed away after halftime against a Cardinals team that never said die and, to put it frankly, played like they wanted it more.
"We just didn't find a way to get off the field as a defense, and gave up too many explosive plays," said Overshown. "We already know that if you give up explosive plays, teams find ways to score the ball, so we gotta be better, man. We've just gotta be better."
A lot of tough conversations await the Cowboys this week, and for the fifth time in eight games, and one of those involve the defense finally figuring out how to put together a complete game.
"To be honest, I wish I had the answer to that. I really don't know what happened in the second half. We weren't tackling great and, like I said, giving up explosives is stuff you can't do," said Overshown. "We were up 17-3, and you gotta hone in at that point. That's the time to choke them out as we want, but you can't let a NFL team play and keep close in any game.
"We already know how these games are. They're never over until the fourth quarter. It's a lesson we've got to learn, and we're tired of learning this lesson, but it was another lesson we got to learn."
And until they do, they'll continue to suffer the same gut-wrenching fate, more often than not
