Cardinals vs. Cowboys Week 8: Gardner Minshew Comes Off the Bench to Stun Dallas 33-30 in Overtime

With 1:35 left in the third quarter, trailing 17-3 and looking like a team that had already mentally boarded the flight home, the Arizona Cardinals sent Gardner Minshew II in for Jacoby Brissett. On Minshew's second snap, Tyler Allgeier went 63 yards to the end zone. On his last drive of regulation, Minshew hit Michael Wilson for the tying touchdown with six seconds left. Somewhere in between, the Dallas Cowboys turned a 14-point fourth-quarter lead into the strangest loss of their season.

The Arizona Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys 33-30 in overtime on Sunday at AT&T Stadium, where Arizona is now 5-0 since the building opened in 2009. Chad Ryland missed the extra point that would have won it in regulation, then drilled a 42-yarder in overtime to finish the job. Both teams are 3-5, and Dallas still has not won back-to-back games since last November.

Dallas Builds It, Then Hands It Over

For two and a half quarters, this looked like the game Dallas needed. Shemar James picked off Brissett, the first interception of James' career, and returned it to the Arizona 5. What followed was pure chaos: Javonte Williams fumbled, the ball bounced into the end zone, and James Mitchell, a practice squad call-up making his debut, fell on it for a touchdown. Dak Prescott then capped a 12-play, 85-yard march with a 9-yard strike that Ryan Flournoy snagged one-handed, and Dallas led 14-3 at the break. Brandon Aubrey even had the luxury of missing a 61-yard try.

Aubrey's 31-yard field goal finished a 15-play drive and made it 17-3 midway through the third. Brissett took back-to-back sacks on the next series, and that was it. He finished 10 of 23 for 119 yards with an interception and four sacks taken. Per ESPN, Arizona was 1 for 12 in the red zone before Minshew took over. That was about to change in a hurry.

The Minshew Hour

Allgeier's 63-yard touchdown, a career long, came on Minshew's second snap and cut it to 17-10. "My first touchdown had Reggie (Virgil) and Simi (Fehoko) end up doing two awesome blocks," Allgeier told azcardinals.com. Dallas answered right away, and Prescott scrambled in for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter, his first rushing score of the season, for a 24-10 lead.

Then the dominoes fell. Minshew found Allgeier for a 5-yard score. A personal foul on L.J. Collier extended a Dallas drive that ended in Aubrey's 35-yard field goal, which made it 27-17 with 3:58 left. Minshew answered with a 14-yard touchdown to Trey McBride to make it 27-24. Dallas recovered the onside kick, Flournoy coming up with it, and had a clean chance to bury Arizona. Instead the Cowboys could not run out the clock or reach the end zone, and Aubrey's 41-yarder left them up 30-24 with just over a minute to go.

That was too much time. With no timeouts, Minshew moved the Cardinals 80 yards in eight plays and found Wilson in the back of the end zone from 13 yards out with six seconds on the clock. Ryland, who had not missed an extra point since Dec. 28, 2024, pushed the potential winner wide left. Per the Associated Press, Arizona became the third team since 2000 to miss a go-ahead PAT in the final 10 seconds of regulation.

Overtime, and a Kicker's Second Chance

Arizona's first overtime possession stalled and ended in a punt. Josh Sweat sacked Prescott on third down to force a Dallas three-and-out, and Minshew went back to work. A 17-yard completion to Wilson on third-and-1 kept the drive alive, and Arizona covered 44 yards in eight plays before Ryland put the 42-yarder through. "It was really fun to be a part of another one that ends like that," Ryland said. He also beat the Rams on the final play back in Week 6.

Minshew finished 17 of 23 for 188 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, a 137.3 passer rating in about a quarter and a half of work. "If you ask Gardner Minshew, he's ready at all times," Mike LaFleur told ESPN. "We'll enjoy that plane ride right now," Minshew said. "That'll be awesome."

The Last Running Back Standing

Allgeier was not supposed to be the guy. Jeremiyah Love, back from a two-game absence, left with another ankle injury, and Bam Knight was ruled out with a concussion. That left Allgeier as the only healthy back, and he responded with 147 rushing yards on 11 carries plus five catches for 44 yards and a score. Per the AP, all but 7 of his 191 scrimmage yards came after halftime. "I've never seen anything like it from an injury standpoint in the skill position in my life," LaFleur told ESPN.

Wilson was playing hurt, too. He caught eight passes for 111 yards and the tying touchdown while, per ESPN, playing through two broken ribs. "Playing through some rib stuff, didn't feel like I played great in the first half," Wilson said. McBride added seven catches for 72 yards and a touchdown, making it 10 straight games with at least seven receptions, a run that puts him alongside Antonio Brown and Cooper Kupp.

For Dallas, Prescott went 19 of 29 for 195 yards with a touchdown through the air and one on the ground. CeeDee Lamb caught seven passes for 58 yards and remains winless against Arizona. Quinnen Williams had two sacks, giving Williams a team-high five on the season, and the Dallas defense finished with five sacks and two takeaways.

The Numbers Behind It

• 467 to 261 in total yards for Arizona, and the 261 was the fewest the Cardinals have allowed all season.
• 93 rushing yards for Dallas on 39 carries, 2.4 per attempt, against a defense that came in 23rd against the run.
• 27 points for Arizona over the third and fourth quarters after it managed 3 in the first half.
• 9 of the past 10 meetings in this series have gone Arizona's way.
• 15 straight games in which Dallas has allowed at least 20 points, per azcardinals.com.

Where It Leaves Both Teams

Our preview picked Dallas to finally break the curse. The curse has other plans, apparently in perpetuity. The Cowboys outplayed Arizona for most of three quarters and still lost, which is a sentence Brian Schottenheimer will be hearing for a while. "When you have people down, you've got to finish them, and that's the most disappointing thing," Schottenheimer said. Prescott called it "one of the toughest [losses] I guess I've been a part of." Jerry Jones did not sound like a man shopping for scapegoats yet: "We really do want those situations. We call for it. Bring it on. And we got it and didn't get it."

Dallas also lost rookie safety Caleb Downs to a concussion and tight end Jake Ferguson to an ankle injury, per the AP. The Cowboys visit Indianapolis on Nov. 8.

Arizona's win came at a cost: Love, Knight, receiver Kendrick Bourne (ankle), rookie left tackle Jayden Williams (knee) and receiver Reggie Virgil all left with injuries. The Cardinals visit Seattle on Nov. 8, and LaFleur would not name a starter after the game, though ESPN reported the expectation is that Minshew keeps the job.

Same Building, Same Ending

Five trips to Arlington, five wins. On Sunday the Cardinals pulled it off with a quarterback who did not take a snap until the game was nearly three quarters old, their last healthy running back and a receiver with two broken ribs. Nobody in Arizona needs an explanation for this building anymore. They just need to keep booking the flight.

Stats from the official box score via theScore, plus game reports from the Associated Press, ESPN, azcardinals.com and dallascowboys.com. Postgame quotes as reported by ESPN, azcardinals.com and dallascowboys.com.