Four Downs: Cowboys Look To Bounce Back In Monday Night Trip To Arizona

 
After a humbling Week Two performance in Denver, the Dallas Cowboys take a trip to the desert to face the Arizona Cardinals on Monday Night Football. Arizona comes in with a 1-1 record, but struggled putting away the Colts last week in overtime and are looking to put together a complete game of their own.

It should be a fun matchup at University of Phoenix Stadium on Monday night, but if Dallas wants to come out with the win, here’s what they’ll need to do.

Get pressure on Carson Palmer

Through the first two games of the season, Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer has thrown for 600 yards (good), two touchdowns (bad) and four intereceptions (ugly). The veteran quarterback has a 30.1 passer rating so far this season when under pressure in the pocket. That’s not going to get it done for Arizona.

This presents a prime opportunity for players like DeMarcus Lawrence and Taco Charlton to get after it and to pressure and fluster Palmer into a critical mistake or two. Palmer hasn’t been as good with the intermediate routes as he has been going deep so that extra pressure can make an impact in this game.

Need for speed in the secondary

The secondary for Dallas is already thin entering Monday’s showdown, as they’ll be without Nolan Carroll and Chidobe Awuzie for this game. The Cardinals also have one of the fastest receivers in the league in J.J. Nelson and if John Brown were healthy, that’s another threat to worry about.

You also can’t forget about Larry Fitzgerald and what he can do on the field and it will be up to Anthony Brown, Jourdan Lewis and Orlando Scandrick to limit the big-play offense of the Arizona attack.

Cowboys must re-establish the run

Last Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos was the worst game in Ezekiel Elliott’s young career, rushing for just eight yards on nine carries. There were also questions about Elliott’s effort late in that game that he has had to respond to. Moving forward, Elliott told ESPN’s Todd Archer earlier this week that he’s confident that he and the team can bounce back.

“We’re a very strong team. I think we respond well with adversity,” Elliott told Archer. “We’ve had bad weeks offensively before. You’ve got to take that on the chin. You’ve got to get back in here and you’ve got to get to work, focus on the next weekend, making sure we don’t go out there and perform like that again. We’ve got to get started early and make sure we execute throughout the game.”

The Cowboys offense works best when they’re able to establish the run and if they want to avoid the mistakes and miscues of last week, that’s where they’ll need to start.

Opportunity to strike against Arizona’s secondary

The Cardinals do have two of the better defensive backs in Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu, but behind them, the depth isn’t great. Peterson will have Dez Bryant as his assignment but Dak Prescott could have some other opportunities to find his other targets from Cole Beasley to Jason Witten and Terrence Williams.

If the Cowboys can exploit those matchups, they can come out on top 2-1 as they head home next week to take on the Los Angeles Rams.

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