THE STORY: ARLINGTON, Texas — Nick Rallis smiled last week when asked if the tweaks he made to his unit during the bye week would solve his unit’s issues.<\/p>\n
“Whether or not I found the answers, we’ll see,” the Cardinals defensive coordinator said.<\/p>\n
Monday night, at least, Rallis did.<\/p>\n
To hold the vaunted Dallas Cowboys \u2013 who had been averaging more than 30 points a game \u2013 to 17 in a 27-17 victory was notable. Much of the postgame story was about Jacoby Brissett’s third straight excellent game at quarterback in place of the injured Kyler Murray, and Marvin Harrison Jr.’s career-best seven catches that jump-started the game.<\/p>\n
But on national television, the ESPN audience watched the Cardinals (3-5) snap a five-game losing streak by forcing three turnovers by the Cowboys (3-5-1), by twice stopping Dallas on fourth downs in scoring position, by sacking Dak Prescott five times.<\/p>\n
“We kind of found ourselves in the same situation we have been in all year,” defensive lineman Calais Campbell said. “I was impressed with my guys. We found a way.”<\/p>\n
Josh Sweat and Campbell each had two sacks. Rookie defensive lineman Walter Nolen III had two tackles for loss, including his first NFL sack, and a pass batted down. Cornerback Garrett Williams, back after a five-game absence with a knee injury, showed why he had been missed.<\/p>\n
“It was good to see us close out a game,” coach Jonathan Gannon said.<\/p>\n
Brissett was outstanding, completing 21 of 31 passes for 261 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions as Murray missed his third straight game.<\/p>\n
Gannon was asked if Murray would remain the starting quarterback when he was healthy. “Nothing has changed,” Gannon said, saying to a follow-up question “I have nothing to add to that.”<\/p>\n
Brissett wasn’t getting involved in the QB talk. “I’m just trying to win and be a good teammate,” he said.<\/p>\n
He was on Monday, finding Harrison early and often, finding tight end Trey McBride for a touchdown for a third straight game. He scored a touchdown himself on a 1-yard sneak for his first six points since Halloween, 2022, when he was playing for the Browns.<\/p>\n
The offense has clicked in all three of his starts, but Brissett deflected any suggestion he was the key.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think it’s me,” Brissett said. “I really don’t.”<\/p>\n
Brissett emphasized the entire offense \u2013 the play-action perfect play to hit wide receiver Michael Wilson for a 50-yard gain on the first play of the second half was a thing of collective beauty \u2013 and again, the defense gave the Cowboys fits all night.<\/p>\n
Campbell called Sweat “the best player in football today” for his game. Rookies like linebacker Cody Simon and cornerback Denzel Burke showed out.<\/p>\n
“All the young guys did great tonight,” Sweat said. “Depth is going to play a big part the rest of the season. It’s football. Things are going to happen.”<\/p>\n
More importantly the Cardinals had a victory to celebrate for the first time in a while.<\/p>\n
“(Expletive), I almost forgot how to,” Sweat said with a smile.<\/p>\n
With a road trip to Seattle next week and a home game with the 49ers after that, the Cardinals still have a chance to climb back into conversations.<\/p>\n
But one win isn’t enough. Sweat said the Cardinals need to treat Monday as a loss when it comes to fixing what went wrong. Gannon too tried to downplay it to a point, with nine games left and the hole still significant.<\/p>\n
To get a win though \u2013 and for once, a win that didn’t come down to the last possession, that wasn’t a one-score game \u2013 resonated in the visitors locker room at AT&T Stadium. It should.<\/p>\n
“It’s nothing,” Gannon said, before catching himself and allowing that it was more than nothing. “They feel good.<\/p>\n
“But they know it’s a week-to-week deal.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE STORY: ARLINGTON, Texas — Nick Rallis smiled last week when asked if the tweaks he made to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[20594,102,104,103,20592,20590,20591,20593,223,21817],"class_list":{"0":"post-34452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-arizona-cardinals-at-dallas-cowboys-2025-reg-9","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news","12":"tag-darren-urban","13":"tag-featured-articles","14":"tag-home-page-news-headlines","15":"tag-mega-feed","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-postgame"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}