The Dallas Cowboys lost to the Arizona Cardinals, falling to 2-5 in one of the worst collapses in team history. The defense held Arizona to three first-half points, including a goal-line stand, an interception from Shemar James, and a forced fumble by DeMarvion Overshown, while holding quarterback Jacoby Brissett to 119 yards with zero touchdowns and an interception. They played their most complete three quarters of the game save for a single play, but they couldn't avoid the fourth-quarter disaster.

The offense didn’t close the door on the Cardinals, and at 17-3, with under a minute in the third quarter, the defense turned back into a pumpkin. They gave up four touchdowns in the final 16 minutes of the contest and only got to overtime because Arizona missed the extra point with six seconds left.

NFL teams were 44-0-1 this season when leading by at least 14 points in the fourth quarter. Dallas was 202-0-1 when leading by at least 14 points in the fourth quarter at home.

Jerry Jones said many people let coach Brian Schottenheimer down, but many of today's game's failures are his doing. The NFC East being awful is the only reason the season isn’t over. It’s a loss that could and probably should cost someone his job.

The offense didn’t do enough to win

The Cowboys offense scored 30 points, but the game wasn’t about the team letting down a good offensive performance. After a turnover on downs at Dallas’ own 30-yard line on the opening drive, the defense recorded a goal-line stand. The offense then went three-and-out, and the defense got the offense going with an interception return to the five-yard line. That touchdown was a fumble by Javonte Williams, recovered in the end zone by the Cowboys. The Cowboys' offense's start allowed Arizona to stay close enough to steal the game later.

The offense added a third-quarter field goal, but it couldn’t put its opponent away. Both offenses woke up in the final quarter, but Dallas had a 15-play drive stall on a field goal, and a field-goal drive that started at the Cardinals' 20 and went for negative three yards and took only one minute off the clock with a chance to put its opponent away. They accumulated only 34 yards in their final 27 snaps on offense. This lands at the feet of the play caller whose offense was supposed to be "GOTI," the greatest offense there is, not "the greatest offense this isn't."

One great quarter is all a team needs

Arizona had three points with two minutes left in the third quarter before the wheels fell off, the train went off the track, and the boat sank. Tyler Allgeier had 176 yards through seven games this season and three carries for nine yards in the first half. He got the ball eight more times from under one minute left in the third quarter through overtime and ran for 137 yards and a touchdown. In that same time, Gardner Minshew II threw for nearly 200 yards and three touchdowns.

Comparatively, Dak Prescott played the entire game and threw for only 195 yards and 1 touchdown. Arizona scored a touchdown on their final four drives. The first was a two-play, 38-second drive. The next was 3.5 minutes. The third was in a minute and 43 seconds, and the final drive was one minute and three seconds. This was an absolute collapse from the Dallas defense.

The Cowboys went back to being a poor rushing attack

Dallas went from the 31st-ranked rushing attack going into Week 7 to the 25th-worst after running for over 200 yards against the Philadelphia Eagles. Not great in either case, but the game last week was supposed to be a jump-start to an improved rushing offense. The Cardinals were a bottom-third-of-the-league rush defense, but shut down the Dallas rushing attack.

The Cowboys ran the ball 39 times for only 93 yards, an abysmal 2.4 yards per carry. The quarterback and a receiver had the two top rushing averages in the game. Javonte Williams got 24 attempts but managed only 56 yards (2.3 per rush), and Tyler Goodson averaged less than that in his seven attempts. The longest rush of the game was seven yards by Prescott. The team has too much invested in its offensive line to consistently be this poor in the run game.