NFL 2025: Cowboys Cannot Afford Another Defensive Calamity Against the Cardinals
The Dallas Cowboys head into their Monday Night Football clash with the Arizona Cardinals desperately seeking a solution to their defensive woes.
The Cowboys have shipped 250 points in their first eight games of the 2025 NFL season – Cincinnati Bengals (253) are the only team who have conceded more.
Despite their defensive issues, online sportsbook Betway have installed Dallas as the favourites to record their fourth victory of the campaign.
Having posted a 3-4-1 record up to this point, the Cowboys need to put some wins on the board to improve their odds of progressing to the playoffs.
Ahead of the upcoming fixture against the Cardinals, defensive end Jadeveon Clowney admitted that the Cowboys need to find a solution to their defensive problems quickly.
“I tell the guys all the time, man, I’ve played on seven teams – it’s my seventh year,” Clowney said. “There’s a lot of talent on his roster for us not to be winning consistently. We always have to come back and figure out what’s going on. We’ve got a lot of talent here.”
“I just believe that we should be competing on a higher level than we are now. We should be winning on a lot higher level than we have, but we just have to continue to play complementary football.
“We’ve got one of the best offenses in the National Football League. Defence just has got to pick it up, and I think if we can get our side going like we need to, it could be a great team and try to head into the play-offs.”
After missing out on the postseason last time around, the Cowboys are eager to avoid suffering the same fate this time around.
Frustratingly, the team has registered 246 points in eight games, second only to the Indianapolis Colts (270). However, the Colts have shipped just 154 points.
The disparity is evident in the Colts’ 7-1 record, which has moved them comfortably clear of their rivals in the AFC South.
As things stand, the Cowboys are already two victories adrift of a wild-card berth. With the second half of the season packed with tough fixtures, their defence needs to improve.
The Cowboys are giving up the fourth most rushing yards per game in the NFL (146), a statistic that defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa is ‘not good enough’.
“That’s something that we’re still just trying to improve, we’re working every day, so just continue to try and sharpen and making sure we’re trying to improve,” Odighizuwa said.
“We still have, not like a lot of time, but you know what I mean, we still have a good number of games left to be able to put it on tape and build confidence going into December and January.”
While the Cowboys will take heart from the Cardinals’ 2-5 record this season, their recent record against them is a cause for concern.
The Cardinals have won the last three meetings between the two sides and will head to Dallas believing they can extend the winning run to four games.
The importance of the fixture for the Cowboys is accentuated by their upcoming schedule, which features clashes with some Super Bowl contenders.
The Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs will both visit Dallas during November, while a trip to the Detroit Lions is scheduled at the start of the following month.
If the Cowboys are to have any chance of progressing to the playoffs, their defensive unit needs to step things up before that run of games.
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