Last night, the Arizona Cardinals went into AT&T Stadium and easily beat the Dallas Cowboys, 27-17. With that victory, the Cards snapped a five-game losing streak to improve to 3-5 on the season. On the other side, the 'Boys fell to 3-5-1. Now that Monday Night Football is in the books, we have one takeaway for both Arizona and Dallas.
The Cardinals don't need Kyler Murray.
Last night was the third straight game that Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray missed due to injury. Before leaving the lineup, the Cards were 2-3 and found themselves in the middle of a three-game losing streak, with their only wins coming against the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers. Ever since Jacoby Brissett took over, the offense has been playing better, and Arizona is 1-2 with competitive outings against some of the NFL's top teams, like the Indianapolis Colts and the Green Bay Packers.
After last night, it's time for us to have an uncomfortable conversation about Kyler Murray. It feels like the Cardinals have outgrown the need for him in the desert. Statistically, the offense is better when he isn't in the lineup. With Kyler Murray, Arizona averages 20.6 points and 288.4 yards per game. When Jacoby Brissett starts, Arizona averages 27 points and 356.7 yards per game. In almost every measurable way, this group performs better when Kyler Murray is not on the field.
There's another reason why the Cardinals should move on from Kyler Murray: he's too damn expensive. Murray is getting paid $46.1 million per year. He currently makes more annually than Patrick Mahomes, Matthew Stafford, Baker Mayfield, and Sam Darnold, but he hasn't been nearly as good as those guys. Plus, he has only played in 69% of Arizona's games since the start of the 2022 season. The Cards are paying Murray a lot of money to miss about five games a year on average. In a league where the best ability is availability, Arizona looks stupid for paying Kyler Murray like an MVP when he has only played one full season since the start of the 2021-22 campaign.
It won't happen, but with the trade deadline set to pass at 4 p.m. EDT today, Arizona should reconsider its quarterbacking future and move on from Kyler Murray. They could get a ton of draft capital for Kyler by trading him away to a quarterback-needy team like the Saints, Raiders, Jets, or Browns. Again, they won't do it, but a permanent quarterback change in the desert could do wonders for the long-term success of this franchise.
Forget the defense; the offense is the reason why the Cowboys lost that game.
All season, we have bashed the Dallas Cowboys' defense, and for good reason. They rank 31st in yards (397.4) and points allowed per game (30.8). But last night, it was the offense that failed the team. The defense might not have been great, but it felt like they did enough to win the game. Unfortunately, the offense sh*t the bed.
We have to give credit where credit is due; the Cardinals' defensive line had Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott in a torture chamber all night long, as proven by the fact that Dak was sacked a season-high five times yesterday. Based on that information alone, we can say that the o-line wasn't good enough last night. The offense also didn't take care of the football. They finished the game with three turnovers and could've had more if not for a lucky bounce here or there. The ground game was actually quite effective, but the Cowboys refused to commit to the run. Dallas ran for 123 yards on 21 rushing attempts, which equates to 5.9 yards per carry. However, the 'Boys were down by so many points that they abandoned the rushing attack because they needed to pick up big chunks of yards, and it's much easier to do that through the air. It's also worth mentioning that the offense was only responsible for ten points last night. Though they scored 17 against the Cardinals, one of their two TDs came on a blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown. The lone successful field goal they kicked also came after the offense failed to reach the end zone despite making it down to Arizona's five yard line.
There were countless missed opportunities and screw ups by the Cowboys' offense in this game. They were five for 15 on third- and fourth-down attempts, they turned the ball over multiple times, and they abandoned the run game in favor of a passing attack that couldn't effectively stretch the field. Dallas' offense was not good enough last night, and that's why they're 3-5-1 and not 4-4-1.
