Joining the Pat McAfee Show on Monday to discuss his former squad’s surprise upset against the Arizona Cardinals, Cowboys legend Troy Aikman put the breaks on any early-season panic from fans.
“I think they’ll be fine,” Aikman said. “For whatever reason, Arizona has played Dallas really well. I’ve called a number of those games, they just have gotten after them… If you look at Dallas, they were without some key guys. It just proves you’ve got to show up each and every week.”
The former NFL quarterback also shared how he believes the Cardinals got the best of Dallas – by physically beating them up, particularly in the run game.
“You guys know what it’s like, there’s a little more urgency on their part. They came out and played a physical brand of football, which I think you have to do. When teams have matched up against them, you have to play a really physical style and stick with the run game.”
As detrimental as offensive redzone woes were on Sunday, it was the Cowboys defense that failed to show up.
In the first half, the defense allowed 181 yards on the ground before buckling down in the second half.
“It was a tale of two halves,” Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn told reporters on Monday. “First half, just so poorly in explosive plays – 40 yards, 50 yards. We just didn’t play with that relentless energy that we had gotten grown to know and appreciate about our group.”
Quinn calls out Cowboys defensive energy
At the end of the day, Quinn could name just three players he thought played well on defense on Sunday: Malik Hooker, DeMarcus Lawerence and DaRon Bland.
Like with the offense, Quinn is looking at their Week 4 matchup against the Patriots as a key bounceback opportunity after learning valuable lessons in Week 3.
“Sometimes you just have a performance that you’re not pleased with at all,” he said. “When you walked around our locker room, you had a lot of pi--ed off people and they should be. We were not up to the standard that we had set for ourselves.
“When you’re going through a difficult performance, you do grow from them. I would love to say you learn from 40-0, but that ain’t the truth. You gotta have some adversity and come out the other end to show what you’re capable of. These guys are a warrior crew and they will respond like crazy.”
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