FIRST QUARTER
That running game performance will be especially telling for this game because Rashard Mendenhall will get the start. Arizona has two blockers pull right on the opening play and Dallas stuffs him for a loss anyway. Inauspicious! TE Rob Housler brutally drops a wide-open sideline pass on 2nd down. Michael Floyd gets jammed well at the line and Carson Palmer overthrows him by a mile on third down! In. Aus. Pish. Us!
Dwayne Harris, the Dallas third-string WR the Rams absolutely could not stop last preseason, then fumbles away the punt. INAUSPICIOUS! Arizona recovers pretty much in the red zone. Justin Bethel, one of RamView's favorite draft sleepers from last year, stripped it out.
Mendenhall gets a good block from Housler in a two-TE set and gains 5. Palmer hangs tough in the pocket on 2nd down and hits Andre Roberts in the flat for a first down just before the pocket slams shut. Another Alfonso Smith middle run, though, another loss, with George Selvie (!) blowing up the backfield for Dallas. Palmer looked for Smith, who split wide and ran a comeback route to the goal line, but Brandon Carr broke the pass up. Palmer could have thrown that a lot better, but he is markedly less accurate when you get pressure on him. Arizona settles for a Jay Feely chip shot. 3-0 Arizona
Arizona's blitzing from the very first play, as Yeremiah Bell trips up Demarco Murray for no gain. Looks like Honey Badger's already starting? He makes the tackle on 3rd down, but Jasper Brinkley got 15 for leading with his helmet on a hit on Tony Romo. Dallas splits the Big Dead Sea and gets Murray 9 on a draw, but on 3rd-and-1, with rookie Terrance Williams beating Jerraud Powers badly on a likely stop-and-go, Romo overthrows him badly to force a punt.
Arizona got Larry Fitzgerald iso'ed on a LB for a big gain, but Levi Brown held Demarcus Ware to knock them back to their own 5. Ware then nearly gets Murray for a safety; think a TE blew the block there. 3rd-and-3, Arizona goes 5-wide and Fitzgerald beats Carr for a 1st down on a quick slant. Mendenhall gets a strong block from Brown and bounces outside for 7. Quick screen to Andre Roberts for 6. Deep dig to Fitzgerald for 25 across midfield. Quick screen to Kerry Taylor gets then down to the DAL25. Again, that'll work well against the loose zone coverage the Rams seem to favor. They pound down to the 15, and run another quick screen, this time to Patrick Peterson, before bogging down. Quick screens are a staple of Bruce Arians' offenses. Michael Floyd fumbles around the 5. Arizona recovers and goes for it on 4th-and-2, but middle pressure forces Palmer into an awkward low throw that an open Mendenhall can't dig out.
SECOND QUARTER
Cowboys pick up a blitz and Romo's back-shoulder throw to Dez Bryant, covered by Peterson, is good for 25. Drag to Miles Austin gets them quickly near midfield. The Big Dead then get what industry experts often phrase as "shit lucky". Murray takes a dumpoff, turns Brinkley inside out, and is off to the races for what looks like a 50-yard TD, but Bell clips him at the ankles around the 10, and Murray loses the ball while trying to regain his balance. The guy who got burned on the play, Brinkley, recovers the fumble. Well, that wasn't exactly football justice. Get that play in the opening week game plan, though, Schotty.
Backed up on the goal line again, rookie Jonathan Cooper gets Arizona out of the hole by springing Mendenhall for 10 with a pull block. Mendenhall finishes the run nicely by running over a Dallas DB. Palmer fires three straight blanks after that, though, and I really can't explain any of them. Arizona has yet to take a deep shot. Maybe they're already happy with that part of their game after last week?
With Powers consistently leaving him 6-to-10 yard cushions, Bryant exploits him for three downfield catches to get Dallas quickly to the Arizona 30. Except at the end of that last catch, Powers strips it out, though I think Bryant may have been down, and Brinkley collects his second fumble recovery of the quarter. To Arizona's credit, you make your own shit luck sometimes. They really tackle with a turnover in mind.
Referee Clete Blakeman reviews the play and doesn't agree with me, so Arizona will keep it. All the while, Arizona color man Ron Wolfley, who sounds like a slow-witted cartoon character to begin with, babbles insanely about "blood farmers" and "pig farmers" and has me a little concerned about the safety of Arizona's play-by-play guy. Hopefully he'll survive the rest of this recap, which goes into speed mode now that Drew Stanton has entered the game...
* Certainly noteworthy that Arizona forced FIVE first-half turnovers this week and pitched 7 shut-out quarters against Green Bay and Dallas. Dallas finally scored in the 4th, with QB Alex Tanney engineering a 16-play, 89-yard drive, scrambling twice to convert 3rd downs and hitting TE Gavin Escobar twice to convert two others, including a short TD pass. Tanney (14-19-136) looked pretty good, actually. Strong-armed, throws well on the move. Driving for a potential game-winning TD, though, Dallas committed a delay of game after a dead ball and Tanney followed it with a bad interception.
* Also notable were Arizona's struggles in the red zone, settling for three chip-shot FG attempts and getting stopped another time on 4th down. They haven't shown the reliable power-running game or a go-to receiver besides Fitzgerald to succeed down there.
* Not confidence-inspiring play from the other backup QBs. Kellen Clemens, er, Kyle Orton threw two TERRIBLE picks before halftime. Forced one into coverage and floated a bad long-ball attempt that the Arizona DB ran under easily. That second gaffe set up Feely's third FG. Stanton was also picked off at the goal line, badly overthrowing a checkdown.
* Jay Feely hit a 53-yarder to make it a 6-0 game, but bafflingly missed a 30-yard attempt right after that. Selvie beat Nate Potter for a sack to stall that drive. Late in the game, though, Selvie overran a play that rookie Andre Ellington turned into the game's longest run, a 24-yarder. That and a drag route Charles Hawkins ran off with for 34 set up the last FG.
* Dallas' edge blitzes were effective, both with corners and linebackers.
* Kevin Minter's looking like a heck of a good draft pick for Arizona. Always around the ball. I don't note that he's been exposed to the amount of play-action and passes to the tight end in two weeks that Alex Ogletree has, though.
* Arizona's middle running game was still fairly ineffective with Alfonso Smith and Stepfan Taylor. They're going to have to rely pretty heavily on Mendenhall, who still looks like he's got juice.
* Jaron Brown's a big, Brian Quick-type receiver who's had some hands issues. Put an end-around on the ground in this game. He, Hawkins and Kerry Taylor (4-83), this week's leading receiver, give Arizona some intriguing young receiver depth, though, but maybe too young? Nobody besides Fitzgerald's anywhere close to being an established threat or a reliable go-to.
* PC13 game ball goes to Tony Jefferson, who had a first-half interception that set up a FG and intercepted Tanney in the final 2:00 to stop Dallas' chances of a late-game comeback.
* Play-by-play man Dave Pash did survive the game without being eaten by Wolfley, who also screamed non-sensically about minors in bars, tomatoes in blenders, Immodium A/D (?), meat grinders and sausage, centaurs, throwing Spam in a can... OK, I may have to steal that last one. Still, he's insane.
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