Can the Cardinals Jumpstart their Offense Against a Struggling Dallas Defense?

Fresh off their week eight bye, the Arizona Cardinals travel to Dallas for a Monday night matchup with the 3-4-1 Cowboys.

The Cardinals’ offense showed signs of life in Jacoby Brissett’s two starts, though they’ll give the keys back to Kyler Murray this week. The QB situation has been a hot topic among the fanbase, with a large portion of fans hoping Brissett keeps the starting job due to his willingness to get the ball out on time and hang in the pocket when pressure is closing in. In contrast, Murray is great at escaping from trouble, but he often does so far too soon, which can close off large portions of the passing concepts and leave him with the option of throwing the ball away or scrambling for a short gain.

Murray’s playstyle ultimately gives the offense a more boom-or-bust nature, especially against less disciplined defenses like the one they’ll face in week nine. The Cowboys present the perfect opportunity for a confidence-boosting performance from Arizona, as their defense has conceded an average of 31.3 points per game, good for 31st in the NFL.

The Dallas defense allows 258.6 passing yards per game and 146 rushing yards per game, ranking 31st and 29th in the league in their respective categories. They’re also among the worst in the NFL at allowing explosive plays, more so on the ground than through the air.

Starting with the defensive line, the Cowboys base out of a standard four-man front, the two defensive tackle positions will mostly be occupied by Kenny Clark and Osa Odighizuwa, with Solomon Thomas rotating in behind them. Both Clark and Odighizuwa have been effective pass rushers when given the chance, registering PFF pass rush win rates above 12%, while Thomas has been below average with just an 8.7% win rate.

The edge room is much more of a rotation, with six different players seeing snaps since Jadeveon Clowney was signed and suited up in week four. Veteran Dante Fowler Jr. has been the most consistent threat off the edge this season with a 16.7% win rate, but lately, rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku has started to flash the skillset that made him a 2nd round pick out of Boston College, and he could very easily wreck this game for Arizona if he’s isolated 1-on-1 with Jonah Williams.

Behind those two, Sam Williams has received quite a bit of playing time, but his play has been so poor that it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Ezeiruaku eat into his snap share. James Houston and Clowney offer spot snaps as pass rushers, and both have been solid in that role, while Marshawn Kneeland is mostly a base down rotational edge for run defense purposes.

Speaking of run defense, this unit is downright awful against the run. Of the nine players previously mentioned, just two have run defense grades over 60.0: Thomas at 61.0 and Clowney at 65.4.

146 rushing yards per game doesn’t happen by mistake; these guys get gashed weekly, and in the last month, that number has jumped up to a staggering 168.75 yards per game allowed on the ground.

The linebackers aren’t without blame either, as this group looked rough on paper coming into the season and has managed to tank what little optimism fans might have had. Kenneth Murray Jr., in particular, has been a nightmare against the run throughout his entire career, and yet he’s a starter who leads this group in run defense snaps.

Lately, Murray Jr.’s running mate has been rookie Shemar James, who has also been a complete liability in run defense, with a 41.7 overall grade. Marist Liufau has been much better, with a grade of 81.7, albeit in only 75 snaps.

A large reason for Liufau’s limited snaps is his inability to cover, and we can start to group the secondary into the pass coverage conversation because it’s very similar to the run defense: there aren’t many bright spots.

To highlight one, Daron Bland has been a fine corner, but aside from being on the receiving end of a Marcus Mariota grenade toss in week seven, he hasn’t been able to force turnovers at the incredible rate he did in the past. Bland has shifted into the slot recently, and because of this, the outside cornerbacks have been a combination of Kaiir Elam, Reddy Steward and Trikweze Bridges.

Elam has been replacement-level but not downright awful, with a coverage grade of 60.6, but he hasn’t been able to make plays on the ball, with only one forced incompletion. Steward has allowed a high percentage of targets his way to be caught, but those catches are generally short gains. Bridges has been the disaster of this group, a rookie seventh-round pick by the Chargers who's already on his second team and had his coverage ability compared to running routes in the air by Tony Romo on Sunday.

He allowed seven catches on 13 targets for 102 yards and two touchdowns against the Broncos, good for a 27.4 coverage grade, even taking into account his interception on an errant Bo Nix pass.

The Cowboys' defense gives Arizona a really good opportunity to put up a performance they can build upon down the stretch, and maybe that’s just what they need to flip the script in all of these one-score games.