NFL teams
David Fleming, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Cardinals-Cowboys tale of the tape

NFL, Arizona Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys

I've crunched the numbers. I've watched the film. I've studied the matchups. And here's my main concern leading up to Sunday's big NFC showdown between the Arizona Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys: Hey Jer, just how secure are your goalposts inside AT&T Stadium?

It doesn't happen very often in the corporatized and indemnified No Fun League, but the last time I saw NFL fans actually storm a field and tear down the goalposts was Sept. 7, 1997, in Tempe, Arizona. Looking back now, I wonder if that was the classic Hollywood body swap, "changeup" moment; the one that forever altered the course of these two franchises and, 17 seasons later, brought us to Sunday's duel for NFC supremacy.

Heading into that 1997 game between these former NFC East "rivals," the Cowboys' dynasty had been on a seven-year streak, winning 13 games in a row against the sad-sack Cardinals. Down 22-7 in the third quarter and getting thunderously booed by their own fans, somehow the Cardinals and quarterback Kent Graham (who had blown an 18-point lead the week before) rallied back to win 25-22 in overtime on a 20-yard field goal from Kevin Butler. Afterward, it seemed like all 71,000 fans instantly flooded the Sun Devil Stadium field and took out seven years of frustration on those poor goalposts. They never stood a chance.

Before that game, the Cowboys had held a massive 46-22 head-to-head advantage against the Cardinals.

Since then?

Since that fateful moment in the desert, the Cardinals have, dare I say -- swallow your coffee, wipe, breathe  -- gotten the better of this rivalry.

The Cardinals are just 8-9 against the Cowboys since that game, but that includes a playoff win (20-7 in the 1998 postseason) and a current three-game winning streak. In that time frame, Arizona also has more playoffs wins (five vs. one), the only Super Bowl appearance (2008) between the two and the good fortune of never having employed Ryan Leaf. Dallas, meanwhile, has finished last or next-to-last in its division 10 times since 1997.

Ya know, the darndest thing happened when I started to look at the recent history of these two franchises while putting together the Flem File's Tale of the Tape for Sunday's matchup. It turns out there's more at stake than just SXSW bragging rights and the early lead for the NFC's top playoff seed.

Because the second you are able to set aside your warped preconceived notions of these two franchises (overly negative for the wandering, wayward Cardinals and overly optimistic for the long-lost dynasty of America's Team) you realize, depending on what happens Sunday, there's a good chance the 2014 Cardinals are actually the team we've been waiting all these years for the Cowboys to become.

Sunday, then, could be so much more than just an NFC battle. It could be the critical tipping point in the development (or regression) of two franchises.

How will it unfold? Who knows? This is, after all, the NFC, which this season seems to stand for Not Fully Committed.

But the Flem File's Tale of the Tape seems to suggest one thing.

The Cowboys had better buckle up those goalposts.

Quarterbacks

Much like Jerry Jones, I'm not a doctor, but I often play one on the Internet. Few quarterbacks in the history of the league have endured the kind of pounding that  Tony Romo has taken in Dallas. He's now a battered 34-year-old who has had two back surgeries in the past year, needed a pain injection to return to the game last week, looked shaky when he did play and is now listed as a game-time decision for Sunday. So my official prognosis: It's not looking good, folks.

On the flip side, Carson Palmer missed a month with lingering nerve problems in his shoulder. When healthy, Romo and Palmer have been great. Palmer has one pick in 154 attempts and a passer rating (98.3) far above his career average of 86.3. Of course, one or two big hits, and this once-epic battle between NFC heavyweights devolves into Drew Stanton versus Brandon Weeden. The difference there is that Stanton is 2-1 as a starter this season with zero interceptions.

ADVANTAGE: Cardinals

Recent history

It's all Cardinals. The teams have played three times in the past seven seasons, and Arizona has won each game in dramatic, bizarre or heartbreaking fashion. In 2008, the Cards opened the game with a 93-yard kick return by J.J. Arrington and ended it, in overtime, with a blocked punt returned for a touchdown to win 30-24. On Christmas 2010, a last-second 48-yard field goal by Jay Feely gave the Cardinals a 27-26 win. And in 2011, Arizona again won in overtime after LaRod Stephens-Howling turned a short pass from Kevin Kolb into a 52-yard TD. The Cowboys thought they had won the game in regulation on a 49-yard field goal by Dan Bailey. But coach Jason Garrett outsmarted himself by calling a timeout just before the kick, and Bailey's second attempt fell short. "I was glad they iced their kicker so I didn't have to," joked then-Cards coach Ken Whisenhunt.

In the Cowboys' defense, all three of those games were played in Arizona. But I don't see how much home-field advantage will help the Cowboys, especially after Week 5 when an overabundance of Texans fans infiltrated AT&T Stadium and made it so loud Romo had to use a silent count to deal with crowd noise. As they say in Texas: That's just sad, y'all.

ADVANTAGE: Cardinals

Competition

The Cardinals' best start since 1940 includes impressive wins over San Diego, San Francisco and Philadelphia. In their past 16 games, the Cards are 13-3, which is tied with Denver for best record during that time frame. The Cowboys, meanwhile, seem to be the product of DeMarco Murray and ... and ... and one of the easiest schedules in the NFL. Their only victory against a team over .500 was a 30-23 Week 6 win against Seattle.

And while there's no question Murray is a beast who is taking a run at history, the average rank of the rushing defenses he faced in the first half of the season is 16th. The Cards have the NFL's No. 3 run defense.

ADVANTAGE: Cardinals

Drama

While I'm not proud of this fact, in 2012, I was the one who originally compared the Cowboys to the Kardashians by coining the phrase Cowdashians. The style-over-substance similarities between America's Franchise and America's Family are sometimes stunning. The Cowdashians are worth $2 billion or more, even though since 1997, they have fewer playoff wins than the Jaguars. This kinda reminds me of Kim Kardashian's second wedding, which cost $8 million for a marriage so blissful that she filed for divorce after 72 days. Not to be outdone, the Cowdashians once gave up three draft picks and $20 million for wide receiver Roy Williams.

The soap opera has continued full-force this season in Big D. In mid-October, backup running back Joseph Randle was arrested for stealing cologne and underwear, and the sexual assault lawsuit brought against Jerry Jones by a former stripper was dismissed. Meanwhile, on Oct. 6, Arizona running back Jonathan Dwyer pleaded not guilty after he was accused of assaulting his wife and arrested. The day after his arrest, he was placed on the reserve/non-football illness list for the remainder of the season.

ADVANTAGE: Nobody

Defense

The Cowboys' overachieving defense got exposed Monday night by a third-string quarterback who helped the Redskins ring up 409 yards. Now comes word that the Cowboys' leading tackler, linebacker Justin Durant, is gone for the season with a torn biceps.

The most compelling matchup of this game will be the Cardinals' rush defense against Murray and the Cowboys' No. 1 rushing offense. However, the Redskins managed to short circuit the Cowboys' offense, and their highly-touted offensive line, by bringing five or more pass-rushers on 60 percent of the snaps, including 11 times on third down. Dallas was so discombobulated late in the game it even seemed to affect the confidence and continuity of Murray and the Cowboys' amazing running attack.

There won't be any relief from the chaos this week. The Cardinals are one of the few teams (maybe in history) that actually like to blitz more than that. The last two seasons, they've blitzed on an NFL-high 47 percent of pass plays. Arizona can take those risks because of the way Patrick Peterson, the best cover corner in the game, can protect them downfield. Peterson was knocked out of the Eagles game but was given clearance Wednesday to return to practice. He's the key, and right now it looks like he'll be back.

ADVANTAGE: (Are you noticing a pattern, yet?) Cardinals

Coaching

It wasn't that Jones took it upon himself to diagnose Romo's back or to relay the information directly to Garrett, but the way that, after the fact, the Cowboys' coach just shrugged and took it (like he did after handing over his play-calling duties last season), saying, naw, shoot, I'm not bothered at all by my owner's actions. Jones just can't seem to help himself: He's taken a potentially great coach and, once again, cut him off at the knees by constantly undermining his authority.

The numbing effect this creates was on display against the Redskins, when the Cowboys were so slow and cumbersome adjusting in real time to Washington's barrage of blitzes. It was like no one on the sidelines felt they had the authority to make a bold decision.

On the flip side, over in Arizona, you've got the super-chill 62-year-old Bruce Arians, who, based on a recent story by ESPN The Magazine's Tim Keown, seems to coach kinda the same way we all would if someone gave us an NFL team to run. Arians is 25-10 as a head coach (including his 9-3 interim stint with the Colts), but he's never tried to make coaching or football seem more complicated or important than it really is. In four decades, he's only spent one night sleeping in his office. This year, he trained Stanton in the art of sliding by bringing a Slip 'N Slide to practice. And, he responded to the Cards' great start by saying this: "It's a short elevator ride back to the s---house. All of a sudden I'm the greatest damned coach in the world. I've been a sorry son of a bitch for 17, 18, years now. I mean, I ain't changed just because we won a couple of games."

Arians won't ever change -- and thank God for that.

But if his Cardinals beat the Cowboys on Sunday and take control of the NFC, nothing will ever be the same in Arizona.

ADVANTAGE: Arizona

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