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The Arizona Cardinals were down 17-3 when Gardner Minshew entered action at AT&T Stadium.
In the blink of an eye, the Cardinals forced overtime in Week 8 to eventually win 33-30 in a thriller, walking it off from a Chad Ryland field goal.
Winners and losers from a wild win in Dallas:
Boy did that Cardinals offense look much better with Minshew running the show. Minshew marched Arizona down on three consecutive touchdown drives when their offense was practically dead in the water with Brissett in the saddle.
The energy and overall performance was night and day different with Minshew in the mix. He finished with 17 completions on 23 attempts for 188 yards and three touchdown passes.
It finally happened. Fans, for weeks, had been clamoring for Brissett to be benched, and early in the third quarter, head coach Mike LaFleur finally pulled the trigger. Brissett completed just ten of his 23 passing attempts for 119 yards and one interception.
With Minshew's success, the Cardinals are now unlikely to turn to Brissett again, all but officially pinning him as a backup.
This is the obvious one, right? With Jeremiyah Love and Bam Knight injured, Allgeier was the only healthy Cardinals running back.
After being stuffed, Gardner Minshew's presence somehow opened up an entirely new offense, one that saw Allgeier reel off multiple 50-yard runs in the second half. Allgeier took a lot of flack after a lackluster start to the season, though he met his opportunity head-on today and showed exactly what made him a desirable free agent.
Allgeier finished with 191 scrimmage yards and two total touchdowns on the afternoon.
The Cardinals stopped Dallas late in the game and forced the Cowboys to bring on their punt team. Down by just seven points, that gave Arizona the opportunity to piece together a potential game-tying drive.
However, a personal foul penalty by Collier (who pushed a Cowboys player late after the whistle) gave Dallas new life on offense, extending their drive and eventually an extra three points, going from a one-score deficit to ten points. That very well shifted the dynamic of the game, where Arizona was just out of reach of a potential upset.
Collier did respond with a sack and batted pass after the penalty, but that's still something that just can't happen. Better teams than the Cowboys would have iced the game after Collier's mistake.
Billings has been a surprising inactive for the Cardinals through the beginning portion of the season, though Arizona made the big man available today, and it paid off.
The mammoth defensive lineman tallied five total tackles, helping limit Dallas' rushing attack to a long of just six yards from running backs while he also brought down Dak Prescott for a sack.
Jeremiyah Love. Kendrick Bourne. Reggie Virgil. Bam Knight. Jayden Williams.
All of the aforementioned players were injured during the game, and you can include Michael Wilson who managed to battle through his own injury to remain in the mix. The Cardinals' offense couldn't catch a break when it came to health, being depleted at numerous spots across the course of the game.
The Cardinals emerged as winners, but their injury report will be massively long in the coming days.
Wilson suffered from injuries and a case of the drops early in action. Boy, did he respond. Minshew targeted Wilson heavily after entering action, especially on the team's game-tying drive — where Wilson reeled in an incredible touchdown reception that would have won the game had Chad Ryland not missed the extra point.
Wilson added a 17-yard run in overtime to put the Cardinals in scoring position, adding to his 111 receiving yards on the day.
With an extra point winning the game, Ryland pushed his kick wide left, extending things to overtime instead of playing his part on a high percentage extra point to seal Arizona's upset.
Ryland has been hot and cold for the Cardinals dating back to last year, but even after nailing the overtime winner from 42 yards — there should still be questions on their kicker spot.
The noise around a potential Sweat trade is fairly loud, though the outside linebacker was largely held in check against the Cowboys until overtime, where he sacked Dallas quarterback (and maybe even potential future teammate) Dak Prescott to give Arizona possession back.
What a way to show up when the moment needed him, even if it was in front of a team reportedly interested in him.
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