Every year is different. Every team is different. But when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals of late, the outcome remains the same.
The Cowboys simply can’t solve the pesky Cardinals, who have sone four straight in the series and seven of the last eight.
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Most damning is that the Cowboys have never beaten the Cardinals at home at AT&T Stadium, where the two teams will face on off Sunday.
It’s a riddle the Cowboys (3-4) must finally solve if they hope to continue rebound from a disappointing start and surge back into playoff contention.
Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb doesn’t necessarily believe the Cardinals (2-5) have a hex on the Cowboys. But he has never beaten them since he’s been in the league and thinks in crazy that Arizona seemingly always has upper hand.
“I’ve never beaten the Cardinals since I’ve been in the league. So that’s fair to say,” Lamb said. “I wouldn’t say [we have a] heightened focus, but it’s definitely a note to take. It’s just crazy. We’ve been very relaxed, and they’ve punched us in the mouth every single time. They’ve always had more energy.
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“Just coming into the game, they’re more excited regardless of if it was at 12 o’clock [1 Eastern], Monday night, Sunday night. We played them in primetime; they beat us there. Just coming in and treating them as if they are a Super Bowl-contending team, which they may be. Hats off to them in their prep. We just have to go match them, if not overpower that.”
Lamb was purposeful in saying they have to treat the Cardinals like a Super Bowl team. The sad part is that during this stretch of dominance against the Cowboys is that the Cardinals have been a bad to middling team themselves.
Take last season when the Cardinals beat the Cowboys 27-17 at AT&T Stadium with then-backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett playing in place of starter Kyler Murray. Brissett is the Cardinals starter now.
But he has struggled. He has a 3-16 record since taking over as Arizona’s starting quarterback. He averages just 5.7 yards per attempt and has been sacked 15 times this season.
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But he beat the Cowboys last year and is going against a Cowboys defense that allows the second-best quarterback rating in the NFL, is last in the league in third-down percentage, has recorded only 10 sacks, just two interceptions and is 31st in rushing yards allowed.
“We got to win,” Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said of Sunday’s game. “Understanding what happened last year, it was an ugly, ugly game, ugly on our part. You can go to some years before then whether it’d been at Arizona. They’ve had our number these last couple of years. Credit to their defense, credit to the way those guys come in and play and execute, but it’s a new year.”
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer doesn’t buy into any theory of Cardinals hex. He said outcomes have been decided by ball security. Nothing more.
“I kind of hit it right between the eyes because that’s the way I believe you do it. [We’re] 1-8 against them, going back to I believe 2011. Four in a row at home they’ve beaten the Cowboys,” Schottenheimer said to reporters Friday.
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“I know why: Minus-11 turnover differential in those games. Last year we were minus-three. “So, ‘the ball’ is what this game’s going to come down to.”
If the Cowboys can take care of the ball and come away with a win, it will give them only their second win streak of the Schottenheimer era, dating back to a three-game surge last season before falling to 7-9-1.
It will also bring the Cowboys back to .500 on the season at 4-4 and a chance to get a third straight win next Sunday against the 2-5 Indianapolis Colts, who have traded away two of their best players in the last week for future draft picks.
The opportunity of their for the Cowboys.
They must take care of the pesky Cardinals first.
