Cowboys suffer another epic late collapse as Cardinals escape in OT - USA Today
On the day after Halloween, the Dallas Cowboys might have found it hard to shake the feeling of a hex looming over them.
Another late collapsed doomed the franchise in a 33-30 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals, which sent coach Brian Schottenheimer's team to 3-5 on the year.
The Cowboys looked to be in prime position to secure the win with 1:09 remaining, when kicker Brandon Aubrey's 41-yard field goal extended his team's lead to 30-24.
On the ensuing drive, however, Cardinals quarterback Gardner Minshew – who replaced starter Jacoby Brissett in the third quarter – took the offense 80 yards in eight plays despite not having any timeouts.
Minshew's 13-yard touchdown pass to Michael Wilson seemed to put Arizona on the precipice of an incredible win in regulation, but kicker Chad Ryland missed the extra-point attempt wide left. Ryland had converted his previous 58 extra-point tries.
Arizona managed to finish off the comeback in overtime, however, when Ryland kicked a 42-yard field goal after both offenses traded punts.
Minshew finished with 188 yards and three touchdowns on 17-of-23 passing. Running back Tyler Allgeier, who took over as the lead option in the backfield when Jeremiyah Love suffered an ankle injury on the final play of the first half, recorded 147 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries.
Dallas had led 24-10 early in the fourth quarter after Dak Prescott scrambled for a 5-yard touchdown. Prior to Sunday, the Cowboys had been 69-0 when leading by 14 points or more in the fourth quarter, according to ESPN.
The Cowboys' unraveling ignited memories of its Week 3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, who managed to escape the Rio de Janeiro matchup with a 34-31 win. In the final seven seconds, a 27-yard Zay Flowers reception set up a 56-yard game-winning field goal by Tyler Loop as time expired.
Dallas has now lost its last five games against the Cardinals.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made his disappointment clear after the defeat.
“This is an indictment of the whole show," he told reporters, according to Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "This is a criticism of everyone.”
Jones, however, said that he wasn't considering shaking up the coaching staff.
“That’s not in my mind at this time," Jones said, again citing his reluctance to make staff changes during the season.
Added Jones: "I will say that a lot of people let Brian down today. For whatever criticism we want to have of Brian, we can all get in line. To use a cliche, that was a total team effort out there for us.
"For our fans, we have to be better than that, where we got our hands on the win and then dropped the ball."
Calling it a "tale of two halves," Schottenheimer said Dallas' finishing touch in "all three phases" was lacking on Sunday.
"You let a team hang around, and the momentum swung in a big way," Schottenheimer said in a news conference. "It's unfortunate, but momentum is powerful in this business."
While taking accountability for the loss and saying he would be direct with players about where the game went awry, Schottenheimer maintained he believed the team had the right composition to turn things around.
“I believe in our staff. I believe in our players," Schottenheimer said. "I think we played a really good game in Philadelphia and played a pretty good first half here. Second half was not very good. We have to look at the film and learn from it.”
