2026 Season | Week 8 | Gameday Chatter Thread | Cardinals @ Cowboys | 11/01/2026

Against six starting QBs (Dart, Daniels, Jackson, Stroud, Love, Brissett), combined for QB Rating 101.31.
 
Prescott, Schottenheimer have differing views on what went wrong on final drive vs. Cardinals
By Brad Townsend, Staff Writer Nov 1, 2026

"I try not to remember certain losses, but that's what makes this one the most disappointing," the Cowboys QB said after the loss to Arizona.

ARLINGTON — Of his 63 previous losses as a Cowboy, quarterback Dak Prescott couldn't recall a more disappointing one than Sunday's.
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Certainly there have been other candidates, including two this year — final-seven-seconds heartbreak to the Ravens in Rio; and somehow losing at home to Jalon Daniels-quarterbacked Tampa Bay.

But the Cowboys plummeted to a new rock bottom with Sunday's 33-30 overtime home loss to injury-depleted Arizona — by blowing a 14-point lead in the final 11 minutes of regulation.

"I try not to remember certain losses, but that's what makes this one the most disappointing," Prescott said. "I don't know if there's been a game in my career, with this much time left, with this lead, that I haven't or the team hasn't finished."

Scoring 30 points at home should be enough to win most games, even with Prescott passing for only 195 yards. The Cowboys leaned on the run and stuck to that plan despite Javonte Williams gaining only 56 yards on 24 carries — and the team averaging 2.4 yards per rush.

Conservative? Yes. Too conservative? Was there a moment in the game in which Prescott would want a do-over? He pondered for maybe two seconds.

"Maybe the drive after the onside kick, just that drive in general, wanting to be aggressive," he said. "Not knowing what was going to come afterwards, right? That six points wasn't enough."

Not that fans need or want to relive that particular part of Sunday's nightmare, but here goes:

Dallas led 27-24 after Arizona scored with 2:11 left in regulation. The Cowboys recovered Arizona's onside kick on the Cardinals' 44.
The Cowboys ran Williams up the middle for no gain. Then Prescott was sacked for a six-yard loss, taking the game to the two-minute warning. Then Williams ran up the middle for three, and the Cowboys allowed the clock to run down until Brandon Aubrey's 41-yard field goal with 1:14 left.
In hindsight, did Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer wish the play-calling would have been more aggressive — all game long and, in particular, under those late circumstances?
"I want to look at that," he said. "I don't necessarily think so. I mean, we wanted to try to get the running game going and I thought they did some nice things, but I want to look at that. I didn't feel that way out there, no."
What did the Cardinals do to limit the Cowboys' passing game, George Pickens (two receptions for 48 yards) in particular? Schottenheimer noted the 59-yard third-quarter pass to Pickens that was negated by a holding penalty.

"I thought they did a good job of mixing their coverages," he said. "They got after the quarterback pretty good. I thought they did a nice job with that. But at the end of the day, there was some plays out there for us to make and we got to make those plays to win this game."

That final 1:14 was more than enough time for backup Gardner Minshew to drive the Cardinals 80 yards for what should have been the game-winning touchdown with 10 seconds left — except kicker Chad Ryland's blown extra point gave the Cowboys new life.

Fleeting, it turned out. The Cowboys stopped the Cardinals on their first overtime possession, and got the ball on their 29, but went backward five yards with a run, an incompletion and a sack.

That's "probably the thing that bothers me more than anything," Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. "And understand how it happened, that is, to get that ball back.

"All we've got to do is have the field goal and not be able to get it done right there, after dancing with the devil or, if you will, seeing really the Grim Reaper. And then to be able to see the sun and look at it and not get it done?"

As a result, the Cowboys are 3-5 and their season is teetering on the brink.
 
Genghis Khan said:
Chicago Fire has 300 episodes?

Who the frick watches this shit?
Click to expand...
And, it's not the only one. There is also Chicago Med and Chicago PD, and I'm sure they have about the same number of episodes. As far as the second question, I don't know. No one in my house.
 
I'll say this, I don't think a "rebuild" is necessary.

Would it be a logical choice?

Sure, but if you dropped Mike Macdonald and the Seahawks coaching staff on this team next year they could win a Super Bowl, ignoring the cultural rot that Jerry has fostered for 25+ years for a moment.

But if you make the argument that the Jerry rot is so deep and toxic that it doesn't matter what players or coaches we have around, what's the point of rebuilding vs. not, or anything else? Doesn't matter what we do, just have to wait for Jerry to die, which is a reasonable argument of course.

So ignoring that for a second and just looking at the roster and coaching staff, I definitely don't think a rebuild is the only option.

Dak has played well most of the year and played very well today considering we had zero run game, plus the natural Schottenheimer handicap. I think he reasonably has another 2-4 years of top level play left in him. We know the sort of talent we have on the rest of the offense, even if we lose Pickens. On defense we have a legitimate elite DT in Williams and what should be a couple of cornerstones in the secondary in Porter and Downs.

The talent on defense isn't great but it's not this bad, especially not when you have elite defenses in Jacksonville and Minnesota with mostly a bunch of no-name JAG types.

They rolled snake eyes on Parker, it happens, but I don't really blame them for that decision because you see guys like Campanile in Jacksonville who had no DC experience making an immediate impact in his first year last season, while being in line to be a HC as early as next year. The real unforgivable sin was obviously hiring a HC who literally hadn't been on anyone's radar in 15 years, and who was closer to being out of the league than he was to getting a HC spot.

I'm not saying this is a Super Bowl-caliber roster, but with a proper coaching staff? It should be an easy 10 wins with the potential for more depending on the schedule.
 
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