“Absolutely Embarrassing”: Ex-Dallas QB Ben DiNucci Torches Dak Prescott & Co After Painstaking Loss to Cardinals

“It was a tale of two halves, for sure,” head coach Brian Schottenheimer said after the Dallas Cowboys lost their Week 8 matchup 33-30 in overtime to the Arizona Cardinals. Certainly, Dallas had the game under control in the first half, but by the fourth quarter, they once again dropped a game to a backup quarterback: Gardner Minshew. As that happened, former Cowboys quarterback Ben DiNucci expressed his frustration over Dallas’ loss and called it embarrassing.

“This was absolutely embarrassing today,” said DiNucci during an NFL Week 8 recap on CBS. “They stink. I’m lost for words, honestly. They have so much talent on both sides of the ball, and year after year, week after week, all we see is just letdowns from them. And I’m not sure what needs to change…But at some point, the same old, same old in Dallas for the Cowboys; it’s not cutting it.

“Something needs to change. Somebody needs to look themselves in the mirror. I don’t know who it is, but that was an embarrassing loss for them. They had a 10-point lead with a couple of minutes left. They let Arizona drive the length of the field a couple of times, tied that thing up, should have lost in regulation, ended up losing in overtime. But this is embarrassing for the Cowboys. It was embarrassing.”

Dallas entered the fourth quarter with a 17-10 lead with the help of a touchdown, a field goal, and a fumble returned for a touchdown. Yet, they failed to finish the matchup. Quarterback Dak Prescott completed 19-of-29 passes for 195 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions. The offensive struggles were evident, as Dallas tallied 261 net yards compared to 467 by the Cardinals. They recorded 168 passing and just 93 rushing yards.

After entering the fourth quarter with a 17-10 lead, Dallas extended it to 24-10 after Prescott’s five-yard rushing touchdown. Arizona, however, responded with three consecutive touchdown drives to finish regulation. The final one covered 80 yards in eight plays and took just 1:03 off the clock.

At the center of it was backup quarterback Gardner Minshew, who replaced Jacoby Brissett in the third quarter. Minshew completed 17-of-23 passes for 188 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. He led four touchdown drives in his four non-overtime possessions. Arizona scored touchdowns on each of its final four drives in regulation.

The Cowboys had limited Arizona to just three points in the first half, but the Cardinals scored 27 in the second half. Dallas gave up 286 yards after halftime, compared with 157 yards of its own. Arizona converted four of five third downs and went three-for-three in the red zone during that half.

Certainly, as Schottenheimer said, the 33-30 loss to the Cardinals was a tale of two halves.

“What I told the guys is we obviously have to learn to finish in all three phases,” the head coach added. “We had a chance to do it a lot of different ways. Got to get stops on defense. Had a four-minute opportunity that we didn’t seize to try to put the game away. Had a chance for a long field goal before the end of the first half. I think it’s all three phases; it really was a tale of two halves. And the second half was not good enough. When you have people down, you’ve got to finish them, and that’s the most disappointing thing.”

Just like the offense, the defense was of no help either. The unit failed to contain the Cardinals’ passing and rushing game. Tyler Allgeier rushed for 147 yards on 11 carries, scoring one touchdown, while Michael Wilson had 8 receptions for 111 yards and one touchdown, and Trey McBride had 7 receptions for 72 yards and one touchdown. Allgeier also added 44 receiving yards on 5 catches.

That said, it was another disappointing loss for the Cowboys. They fell 34-31 to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3 after Baltimore set up a game-winning field goal with just one second remaining.

In Week 5, they suffered another setback, losing to the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were led by backup quarterback Jalon Daniels. Both defeats were embarrassing, and after surrendering a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter against the Cardinals, the Cowboys have once again found themselves on the receiving end of criticism for another costly collapse.

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