The Dallas Cowboys offensive line was the best unit on the field last week against the Philadelphia Eagles. Can they repeat the performance against the Arizona Cardinals? Let’s take a look.
Trench Dashboard
Here are the Cowboys offensive line metrics for the 2026 season so far.
Pass Block Win Rate – 54% (9th)
Run Block Win Rate – 71% (28th)
Pressure rate allowed
– 31% (17th)Sacks allowed – 7 (1st)
Last three-week trend: Improving nicely
The Pressure Point
Every opponent will look at the Cowboys offensive line and ask, where can we break
it? Here’s what to watch for.
PRESSURE POINT: Do not lose track of Budda Baker
The most dangerous Arizona pass rusher so far is not actually one of its defensive linemen, it’s safety Budda Baker. He leads Arizona with 3.5 sacks, ahead of Josh Sweat and Darius Robinson, who each have two. That immediately tells Dallas something about how Arizona is creating pressure.
Baker has been used selectively as a blitzer. Arizona has found ways to disguise his approach and send him through gaps where offensive linemen are already occupied. One of those plays produced an A-gap sack against Jared Goff.
If Baker begins close to the line, Dallas has to decide whether he is actually coming after Prescott or simply pretending to blitz before dropping into coverage. That uncertainty is the real danger.
PRESSURE POINT: Josh Sweat versus Terence Steele
Arizona still has one edge defender Dallas cannot ignore. Josh Sweat has only two sacks this season, and his overall production has dropped considerably from 2025. His sacks per 100 pass-rush snaps had fallen from 3.5 last year to 1.6 this year, but he remains Arizona’s most established edge rusher.
The Cardinals themselves described Sweat as their best pass rusher earlier this month, and their depth chart places him at left defensive end, that naturally creates snaps against Terence Steele.
Tyler Guyton has still not surrendered a sack this season despite allowing 19 pressures, and his 84.6 PFF run-blocking grade ranks fourth among qualifying tackles this year, but Steele has been the less dependable pass protector.
Arizona should therefore move Sweat toward him and see whether it can create a weakness that Philadelphia failed to find. Dallas does not need to completely remove Sweat from the game, it just cannot allow him to turn a quiet season around on Sunday.
Where to attack
Every defensive line has a weakness, here are the Cardinals soft spots and where the Cowboys offensive line should attack.
GREEN LIGHT: Keep feeding Javonte Williams
There is no reason to complicate this after Dallas finally found its running game against Philadelphia. Now Brian Schottenheimer needs to keep using it.
Arizona has surrendered 884 rushing yards through seven games at 4.6 yards per carry, that’s 126 yards per game which ranks 10th-worst.
It becomes even more interesting because Arizona could again be missing defensive tackle Walter Nolen III. He missed the Denver game with an ankle injury, and head coach Mike LaFleur said that he was not expecting Nolen to practice much this week, so keep watch on his status as that removes a powerful body from the middle.
That means Dallas should go straight back to Tyler Smith, Cooper Beebe and Tyler Booker where Williams had huge lanes against Philadelphia. There is no reason to move away from that approach this week.
Arizona defensive lineman Darius Robinson has also struggled against the run. He has a PFF grading of 42.8 against the run, 106th among qualifying interior defensive linemen. That creates another target for Smith and Booker. Double-team Robinson initially, then allow one blocker to move onto a linebacker.
GREEN LIGHT: Make Arizona’s four-man rush beat you
This might be Dallas’ biggest statistical advantage. Arizona’s defense has generated pressure on only 25.5% of opposing dropbacks, which ranks 26th in the NFL and sits below the league average.
The Cardinals have 15 sacks, 19th in the league, so they have managed to finish some of their pressure opportunities. But they are not consistently forcing quarterbacks to move. Dallas should force Arizona to prove it can win without blitzing. If the Cardinals rush four, send everyone else into a route. Do not automatically keep Jake Ferguson beside the offensive tackle.
Give Prescott five receiving options and make Arizona’s defensive line beat Dallas one-on-one, especially after seeing that Philadelphia could not do it Monday and the Eagles finished without even registering a quarterback hit.
Arizona’s pressure numbers suggest Dallas should trust the offensive line again.
The Chaos Report
Here’s the Arizona Cardinals defensive trends for this season at the defensive line.
Sack Total – 15 (19th)
Pass Rush Win Rate – 52% (14th)
Run Stop Win Rate – 27% (25th)
QB Pressure Rate – 25% (26th)
Last three-week trend: Light pressure, run defense leaking
Matchup of the week
Terence Steele vs. Josh Sweat
This is the individual matchup Arizona needs to win. The former Eagle has not produced at his normal level this season as Sweat has only two sacks, while Arizona’s overall pressure rate is among the lowest in the league, but Dallas knows all to well what he can do.
Sweat has the speed to attack Steele’s outside shoulder and enough length to prevent the tackle from easily getting his hands into position. Steele does not have to dominate Sweat, he simply cannot allow quick losses and he needs to give Prescott time to attack.
Once those wins start happening and Steele handles his assignment enough times, the Cardinals coaches will need to adjust which in turn helps Steele even more.
Best Route to Success
The answer here is simple, do exactly what worked in Philadelphia. Run behind Smith and Booker, and let Guyton use his run-blocking ability that currently has him ranked highly on PFF, then make Arizona react.
If the Cardinals bring Baker down toward the line to stop the run, use play-action behind him. If they blitz, throw quickly.
Injury Updates:
Dallas currently has no new injury concerns among its five starting offensive linemen.
The main Cardinals injury to monitor along the defensive line is Walter Nolen III. Darius Robinson also dealt with a back injury last week but was able to play against Denver. There is some talk of Josh Sweat hitting the trade market before the deadline, but for now expect him to play against Dallas this week.
