The primetime Monday night matchup on the road against the Arizona Cardinals was a tale of two halves for the Dallas Cowboys. The Cardinals pretty much dominated the entire first half, but the Cowboys were able to rebound and come away with a 28-17 victory and improve to 2-1 on the season.
This was an important victory for the Dallas Cowboys in order to keep pace with the rest of the NFC East division. With the exception of the New York Giants, everyone else in the division is sitting at 2-1 right now, so the race to become the division winner once again stays within reach for the Cowboys.
This week’s edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly was a little difficult to write because of the mix of emotions that happened throughout the game for the Cowboys. It was a range of emotions for me as well from the beginning to end, but when all was said and done I was proud with the way my team handled themselves.
So, without further ado, here’s this week’s good, bad, and ugly for the Dallas Cowboys against the Arizona Cardinals. As always, please feel free to take advantage of the comment section below to express any of your own opinions or thoughts on the topic.
The Good
Do the Dallas Cowboys finally have their “War Daddy” Jerry Jones has been desperately wanting? That certainly looks to be the case with the way DE DeMarcus Lawrence has played in these first three games of the 2017 season. He has been so dominant in fact that he is now leading the NFL with 6.5 QB sacks.
Lawrence was virtually unblockable against the Cardinals in prime time Monday night. He put pressure on the Cardinals QB Carson Palmer the entire evening and ended the night with a total of three QB sacks. If not for his pressures, the Cowboys defense would’ve been in trouble. When Palmer had the time, he was able to find an open receiver in the passing game. Fortunately, Lawrence forced him to get rid of the ball quickly for the majority of the game.
The Bad
If not for DeMarcus Lawrence’s dominant performance Monday night against the Cardinals, the Dallas Cowboys defense would have been shredded by Carson Palmer in the passing game. Like I mentioned earlier, Palmer had no problem finding an open receiver when he had the time to throw, but fortunately Lawrence didn’t allow him time to get comfortable in the pocket.
The struggles in the Cowboys secondary is somewhat excusable considering all of the youth that had to play significant snaps due to injuries, but they are going to have to improve and quickly. The Cowboys were already without Nolan Carroll and Chidobe Awuzie to start the game, but then Orlando Scandrick left briefly due to an injury, but was able to return later in the game.
The good news is here that Xavier Woods and Jourdan Lewis didn’t look out of place and made some really good plays, especially Lewis. I wouldn’t be surprised of Lewis is a key contributor on defense, maybe even a starter, sooner rather than later. He was sticky in coverage all night and was equally impressive in the way he was able to make solo tackles in the open field. Unfortunately, the entire defenses performance leaves much to be desired.
The Ugly
The ugly this week was obviously the way the entire Dallas Cowboys team struggled nearly the entire first half against the Arizona Cardinals. On offense they couldn’t get anything going in either the running or passing game, and on defense they are allowing the Cardinals to move the ball up and down the field at ease.
Fortunately, they were able to continue to fight and stay in the ballgame until everyone started to settle down and execute on both sides of the ball. They were able to come away with the win, but it was an altogether ugly victory. Of course, the Dallas Cowboys will have games like this, especially with the tough schedule they have ahead of themselves. This was a good early-season test and they were able to respond accordingly, despite being dominated early.
Last night’s win was an important one. Ugly for sure, but the ability to win ugly forges champions. Dak proved his abilities last night, not allowing a poor start to end his game. He took control of things offensively and led them to victory. Not sure this is much else to say about Lawrence, he is a beast!! Malik Collins and Damontre Moore flashed their skills as well. Lewis looks like he is going to be a big part of our defense moving forward, and Woods looked good as well. Solid tackling all night, which was nice to see. Get Chido back in there soon and our future secondary has a great upside. Nice to see Brice Butler get back on his game, he makes a big difference with his deep play ability. All in all, a win to build on, and now we move on to the Rams. That is a game they have to stay focused for, not get cocky over this one. I think Zeke will build on this performance and I think he will get juiced to play opposite Todd Gurley this Sunday. Needs to show the world who the big dog really is at the RB position.
Very well stated. Thanks for commenting.
I remember the tail end of the Meredith / Lilly era as a kid, when my father got me interested in watching the Cowboys. Pretty alert to when a swoon is coming.
The Denver game had all the look of the kind of loss that sends a team into a tailspin and drains confidence. This game started that way, and then the Cowboys refused to let that stand. Their tenacity and will to win was really on display – from Dak’s somersault into the endzone right over a defender at the 2, to Dez plowing through 5 Cardinals to score, to Butler getting deep and cashing it in, to Demarcus Lawrence again bringing the A game. And all on the road. They earned it.
Had Dak struggled in this game the national media would have been relegating him to also-ran NFL quarterback & definitely not elite. Instead, he proved the opposite.
It is time to start Butler and see if he can build on Monday night. If secondaries have to worry about him getting behind them, it should get some of the focus off Dez.
Very well stated Russ. I don’t know if Butler will see an increase in playing time though. We saw Monday night against the Cardinals every single WR get involved on offense. I think we might see Linehan use specific packages to get each WR more involved. But, I wouldn’t disagree that Butler might just need to see more playing time to see if he can overcome his inconsistency problems.
Lawrence: As I mentioned last week he looks a bit heavier to me. He has a bull rush now that to my recollection he never had. And no loss in burst. And the guy wants it – biggest key to pass rush. I think it rubbed off on Collins.
Lawrence has apparently found the right weight, and combined it with some kind of corner turned on technique. It’s all fallen in place for him. You have to look at this now and make some decisions:
– I’m not moving him from LDE. Whatever that will mean for Taco and Irving in the rotation.
– We know he’ll now face a lot of double teams. Who should be at LDT to cash that in? Collins has the most DT talent, but messing with moving him from RDT is risky IMO for his development curve. But I wouldn’t mind seeing OL’s having to deal with that right next to Lawrence.
Williams vs Butler: This might be “why not” week. I think it’s worth starting Butler and letting him drag the FS deep while Dez works underneath. If you do this and it’s an uptick, then shop Williams. There is enough depth to, so why not…
I think the difference with Lawrence is that he’s finally healthy. Back injuries have been a problem past several years, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue right now. They do need to find somebody to start opposite of him. I really like Moore and think he will see more playing time now that he’s back from suspension. I think on obvious passing downs we could see the combination of Lawrence, Collins, Irving, and Moore.
I don’t think we will see a Williams/Butler battle. The coaching staff really likes what Williams brings to the table. He does a lot of dirty work that goes unnoticed and had a pretty good game against the Giants. Unfortunately he’s been dealing with an ankle injury all season, but I doubt we seen any changes anytime soon.