ARLINGTON, Texas – Thought during my 43rd season covering this Dallas Cowboys franchise had just about seen everything.
Why, in a 1985 first-round playoff game, saw the Rams' Eric Dickerson rush for 248 yards in a 20-0 beating of the Cowboys.
In 1986, saw a 6-2 Cowboys team beaten by the 6-2 Giants when Cowboys quarterback Danny White, leading the NFL's No. 1 offense over the first eight games, got knocked out of the game with a broken wrist and torn ligaments. The Cowboys then only won one more game the rest of the way, ending their record streak of 20 consecutive winning seasons at 7-9, while the Giants never lost another game, going on to win Super Bowl XXI.
Saw the Cowboys' 1995 "Load Left" debacle in Philadelphia when they attempted to run the same play on consecutive third and fourth downs when needing just 1 yard for a first down from their own 29 during a 17-17 fourth-quarter game. They failed both times, leaving the Eagles with a layup field goal for the 20-17 win.
Saw the first-round playoff game that 1999 season when Randy Moss turned five receptions into 127 yards and a touchdown in the Vikings' 27-10 victory.
Saw that 2006 playoff game in Seattle when the snap on a fourth-and-1 from the Seattle 2-yard line – the potential game-winning field goal after the previous play initially ruled a first-down was reversed – slipped right through holder Tony Romo's hands in a 21-20 loss to the Seahawks.
Saw the Dez Bryant catch-no-catch, that really was a catch, in a 26-21 second-round playoff loss up in Green Bay in 2014 to the Packers.
And might never forget two years later during Dak Prescott's rookie 13-3 season, when he rallied the Cowboys against Green Bay at AT&T Stadium to tie the game at 31 in the fourth quarter with just 35 seconds left, presumably to force overtime. Only for Aaron Rodgers, on a third-and-20 from his own 32-yard line with but 12 seconds left in regulation, to heave a 35-yard completion to Jared Cook to the Cowboys' 33. The tight end slid out of bounds with only three seconds left to set up Mason Crosby's playoff game-winning walk-off field goal from 51 yards.
But this one – this one against the erstwhile 2-5 Arizona Cardinals here Sunday afternoon at AT&T the day after Halloween takes the cake, as they say. Beyond the most fertile of imaginations for a trick not many of us will ever forget:
Cardinals 33, Cowboys 30, overtime, leaving the far majority of the 90,736 bearing witness, along with a Fox TV audience, flabbergasted and the Cowboys virtually speechless. How could they?
Now, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott gave it his level best, but the first words out of his mouth after the Cowboys dropped their fifth straight game to the Cardinals organization here at home and the ninth in the past 10 overall meetings, that only win back in 2017, were these:
"Very, very, very disappointing. Sucks. One of the toughest I've ever been a part of. Yeah, no words for it really. Other than that, really, really disappointing and frustrating."
Just the eighth game of this teeter-totter season, having seen the unspeakable far too many times and leaving these frustrating Cowboys 3-5 and still chasing their first back-to-back wins over the past 13 games.
In a nutshell, the Cowboys were somewhat implausibly beaten by the Cardinals backup quarterback Gardner Minshew, who, not trying to be funny here, "shewed" up the Cowboys in the final 16 minutes, 35 seconds of the game he played. He took over for starter Jacoby Brissett with 1:35 left in the third quarter after the veteran starter's line read a bench-deserving 119 passing yards, four sacks, one interception and a 41.8 QB rating.
The Cowboys were beaten by the Cardinals backup running back, their first-round starter Jeremiyah Love leaving with an ankle injury and handing off to fifth-year journeyman Tyler Allgeier. For me, at one point during his resurrection, actually figured better look up how to correctly spell his last name, this guy coming into the game with 162 yards rushing in seven games this year, averaging but 2.9 yards a carry. And he had just three carries for nine yards with 1:35 left in the third quarter when Minshew entered the game.
Now wait on this. Minshew had not taken a snap all season. He had only played in two of the past 21 games in the NFL, completing just six of 13 attempts, his last attempt of an NFL pass coming on Dec. 21 of LAST year. Allgeier plays a five-year career-high 48 snaps, surpassing the last game of his 2022 rookie season of 47.
Now for the unfathomable.
The Cowboys led 17-3 with that 1:35 left in the third quarter.
They led 24-10 with 14:30 left in the game.
They led by 10, 27-17 with 3:54 left to play.
They led 30-24, so by six, with 1:05 to play, and on top of that, still by six with the Cardinals facing third-and-5 from the Cowboys' 40-yard line with 27 ticks left. And they still allowed these Cardinals to score a touchdown with six seconds left, going 80 yards in eight plays and needing just 1:03 to do so against the reeling Cowboys defense.
And the only reason this game even reaches overtime for the Cowboys to seek a reprieve is that Cardinals kicker Chad Ryland, with those six seconds left, barely enough time to even get off a good yawn, missed his first extra point in two years at 30-30, forcing overtime.
If all that is not bad enough, in overtime, the Cowboys defense getting shredded to pieces over the final 16:35 of the game actually produces a first overtime possession three-and-out. All the Cowboys needed was a field goal to win and even their record at 4-4.
Nope, this offense having scored on six of 12 full possessions in the game, though the only problem kicking three field goals – two from inside the red zone and one from the 23 – went three-and-out themselves: a 2-yard Javonte Williams run, a Dak incompletion when Zaven Collier bats down the pass near the line of scrimmage, followed by a Josh Sweat sack of Dak when both tackles were soundly beaten on the third-and-8. That was the Cards' fourth sack of the game and 10th stop on 16 third-down plays, yep, forcing a punt.
Then Minshew, Allgeier and Michael Wilson produce a lickety-split 44-yard drive, more than close enough for Ryland to redeem himself with the 42-yard game-winning field goal.
Now here is what really hurts, worse than any words this team could express afterwards.
This is just the Cards' third victory in the past 17 games, having finished last season on a nine-game losing streak and only that 27-17 victory over the Cowboys in 2025 interrupting what would have been a 15-game season-ending losing streak. On top of all that, after winning the season opener this year, the Cardinals had lost five of their next six.
Until Sunday.
Why, in the last 16:35 of the game, Minshew completed 17 of 23 passes for 188 yards, three touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 137.3 on four consecutive TD drives to tie the game at 30, Cowboys coverage a misnomer. The Cards needed just 23 plays to score those four touchdowns. Just 23 now.
This Allgeier guy, in those final 16:35, rushed 10 times for 142 yards and just his second touchdown of the season, including a double-whopper 63-yard career-long run. Then the very next time he touched the ball, he went 52 yards to eventually set up his first receiving touchdown of the season on a 5-yard reception from Minshew, drawing the Cardinals to within 24-17.
You kidding me, Allgeier, rushing 11 times total for 147 yards and a touchdown, five receptions for 44 more yards and a touchdown, totaling 16 touches for 191 yards and two touchdowns, a career game. Not even close.
You feeling me what we're talking about here? This Cowboys defense, in four consecutive acceptable quarters of football, the fourth against the Eagles and the first three against the Cards, giving up just 10 points, reared its ugly head in the fourth quarter and overtime, giving up 23 points.
As hard as all this is to digest, the Cowboys offense grew far too conservative even when scoring 30 points. So many out there were hailing the Cowboys rushing 38 times for the 204 yards six days ago against the Eagles, proclaiming, See there, you got to run the ball to win. Well, see here, the Cowboys ran the ball 39 times against the Cards, banging their heads against a wall for 93 yards. Average 2.4 yards per carry. Safety Budda Baker patrolling the line of scrimmage had a lot to do with all that.
Some offensive elixir this running the football, huh?
Maybe, and as inexcusable as this loss is, after the Cardinals drew within 27-24, with 2:11 still to play – the most points they've scored in the past five games, second most this season and the most they had scored during their nine-game losing streak to end last season – their onside kick failed miserably. Cowboys wide receiver Ryan Flournoy returned the ball illegally touched by the Cards 19 yards, plus the penalty adding on five more. So hey there, first-and-10 at the Cardinals' 20. The 20, mind you, with 2:07 to play.
Time to score, right? Put this game away with a touchdown. No more field goals. Turn Dak, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens loose because, after all, they had been running the blessed ball when they were not running anywhere (Javonte 14 for 26 in the second half, 58 overall). So guess what happens when time to put the game away?
First down, Williams goes for absolutely nothin'. Then Dak sacked, minus-6. And on third down, the Cowboys basically settled for a field goal, and understand it was third-and-16, but still, Williams runs for 3 before Aubrey's third and damning field goal, only up 30-24 with 1:05 left. Got to be more aggressive. Got to be better up front.
But no … and that's how we get to 33-30 in overtime.
And whatever the Cowboys said afterward fell on deaf ears. Yeah, yeah, "got to finish," as head coach Brian Schottenheimer said, trying his best to keep a sagging chin up, knowing his team in eight games has lost to the then 0-4 Tampa Bays, to a 2-5 Cardinals team and a third of the five losses to the now 4-4 Ravens.
Sure, the Cowboys scored thirty-something for the fifth time this year, but can't be kicking field goals from your 5- and 17-yard lines. I mean, this offense only totaled a season-low 261 yards while the defense gives up 467 – 358 of those yards after halftime. Dak threw for less than 200 yards a second time this season (195), fewest since the 175 in the Giants season-opening loss. He was sacked a season-high four times after just seven in the first seven games. He suffered six QB hits and had five PBUs. And when it comes to explosive plays, the Cowboys only had two for more than 17 yards (37 and 27).
Yep, the Cards followed suit from losses to Tampa Bay and Green Bay, blitzing the Cowboys, the protection breaking down a third time in four games, Lamb and Pickens combining for nine catches, 106 yards, numbers one of them usually produces. But hey, for running aficionados, by golly, the Cowboys ran the ball 39 times. Yeah, great.
Ran right into a ditch full of the ghosts of Cardinals past.
