The Cowboys will try to get rid of the curse of the Cardinals this Halloween weekend and in the process get a win streak started. New acquisitions like Joey Porter Jr. seem to be paying off for Dallas, but others like Rashan Gary are having a tougher time. Let’s get to the Cowboys news.
Cowboys lengthy history of problems with Cardinals stretches 2 decades – Ben Grimaldi, Cowboys Wire
Cowboys have a boogeyman that has made past matchups downright spooky.
The Dallas Cowboys have a problem with the Arizona Cardinals, spanning the course of 20 years and 10 matchups. A few teams have had the Cowboys’
number over that same time period, but none have a hold over Jerry Jones’ organization quite like the Cardinals. The Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers are the prime examples of giving the Cowboys a tough time recently, but Dallas has won three games over the Packers and five over the 49ers in the last 20 seasons. Despite being the more consistent team over the past two decades, the Cowboys have rarely been able to solve the Cardinals’ riddle.
Early returns on Joey Porter Jr. trade prove Cowboys duped the Steelers – Jason Kandel, The Landry Hat
The Cowboys look like they got another steal from Pittsburgh.
Last season, George Pickens broke out after coming over to Dallas from Pittsburgh, and this season, Joey Porter Jr. is the one validating Jerry Jones’ decision-making. It was a risky play to send a 2028 second-rounder to the Steelers in exchange for a CB in a contract year, but fortune favors the bold. Thankfully, early returns suggest this has been a great move. While Porter Jr. has been limited to just three games with America’s Team, the play we’ve seen from him suggests that, despite this team’s many issues on defense, he’s been as advertised as the shutdown CB1 fans were hoping for.
6 Make-or-Break Players Standing Between the Cowboys and Back-to-Back Wins in Week 8 – Sahil Goswami, Athlon Sports
These players will decide if the Cowboys can make it two straight wins for the first time this season.
Lamb has never beaten the Cardinals in seven seasons. He has 53 catches for 651 yards and six touchdowns, including two scores against the Eagles, and his 89.6 grade ranks eighth among 76 receivers, per PFF. “We’ve played them in prime time, they beat us there. So, we need to treat them as if they are a Super Bowl contending team,” Lamb told DallasCowboys.com. Arizona allows 8.5 yards per pass attempt and has given up 17 touchdown passes, most in the league. Linebacker Jack Gibbens allowed five catches on five targets for 99 yards against Denver, according to PFF, and the big plays keep coming.
Cowboys’ Jerry Jones Defends Struggling $32 Million Starter – Sean Deveney, Heavy.com
Jerry Jones gives encouraging words to one of his underachieving players.
On Friday, in an appearance on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, team owner Jerry Jones was asked about Gary, and suggested that the struggles are not on Gary, but on the fact that the Cowboys defense has had so much upheaval and is trying to pull itself together. Said Jones: “He is part of a new group. I probably underestimated the challenge of coming in and changing out the coaches, changing out 60, 70% of the personnel, and a new scheme and how maybe even some new technique, all of those generally contribute to playing. Because he is an outstanding football player.”
3 things Cowboys HC Brian Schottenheimer can carry into week 8 – Connor Livesay, Blogging the Boys
Here’s what the head coach should bring over into their game against Arizona.
One of the major changes in the offense we saw last week was their aggressiveness to push the ball down the field in the passing game. After six weeks of seeing Dak Prescott’s ADOT rank near the bottom of the league, the Cowboys generated explosive plays at an extremely high clip against a defense that had not given up many explosive passing plays to start the season.
With so many defenses sitting on the stop-routes that have been in heavy rotation to start the year, the Cowboys were able to hit multiple big plays using sluggos on the outside, which should be there for them yet again against a Cardinals secondary that has struggled to slow down opposing passing games in 2026 (31st in dropback epa/play and 20th in dropback success rate).
