Dallas Cowboys: 5 Keys to Defeating the Arizona Cardinals This Sunday

Now that you’ve lost more hair over last Thursday’s win against the Dolphins and your wife is deciding between turkey sandwiches or turkey chili for dinner, it is time to look forward to the Dallas Cowboys visiting Arizona this Sunday.

The Cowboys have a huge fanbase in Arizona and normally fill their stadium with many blue jerseys. Add to that the fact that around this time of the year fans of losing teams are more likely to sell their tickets, and you might as well take away the Cardinals’ home-field advantage.

The Cowboys are coming off of yet another close victory over the Miami Dolphins after Dan Bailey nailed a field goal as time expired. The Cowboys have four victories this season by three points or less.

The Cardinals are coming off of a victory over the St. Louis Rams where Beanie Wells had a career day. He ran for 228 yards in the 23-20 win, sweeping the Rams for the season.

Both teams are coming off of huge wins. So the question has to be asked. What do the Cowboys have to do to defeat the Cardinals?

Do Not Punt to Patrick Peterson

You would think after the Rams saw Patrick Peterson run a 99-yard punt return for a touchdown in Week 9 that they’d learn their lesson.

Nope.

The Rams punted to him again yesterday which lead to Peterson’s fourth punt return for a touchdown this season. 

He’s not in Devin Hester’s league yet, but think about this—Peterson has four punt returns of 80-plus yards for a touchdown in 31 attempts. Hester has five in 197 career returns.

To say he’s a weapon is an understatement.

The Cowboys routinely play close games and can’t afford to let a special-teamer like Peterson change the momentum of the game.

Attention Mat McBriar—stay away from Peterson.

Don’t Ignore Early Doucet

I know a lot of you expect me to praise Larry Fitzgerald on this slide, but let’s be honest—we all know Fitzgerald will get his catches and the Cowboys won’t be able to contain him for four quarters.

Quietly, Early Doucet has been right behind Fitzgerald in many receiving statistics.

He has eight fewer catches (43) and only two fewer touchdowns (4).

In Week 16 of the 2010 season, the Cowboys held Fitzgerald to one catch, but allowed his counterpart, Andre Roberts to five catches for 110 yards and a touchdown in the 26-27 loss.

This game was also quarterbacked by John Skelton, who may end up starting for the Cardinals this Sunday if Kevin Kolb doesn’t return from injury.

The Cowboys need to be smart with their coverage. Shifting attention back and forth between Doucet and Fitzgerald will make Skelton go through his reads rather than being fixed on a favorite target.

If the Cowboys secondary can play these two well, I don’t think they’ll have any problems shutting down this offense.

Be Aware of Sam Acho

The former Texas Longhorn, Sam Acho made his presence felt this past Sunday in St. Louis.

The rookie linebacker continuously applied pressure to Sam Bradford, recording two sacks and forcing a fumble.

Acho has started the last five games for the birds. He has recorded five sacks and forced two fumbles in that short time.

It’s apparent that he has finally found his groove as an outside linebacker ever since being converted from the defensive end position he played while in Austin.

The Cowboys’ two bookends, Tyron Smith and Doug Free have played very well this season. Tony Romo has continued to show his ability to extend plays in recent weeks and will hope to do the same this Sunday.

As the cliché goes, a quarterback can’t complete a pass from his back. If Romo is going to lead this team to a victory, the offensive line better know where Acho is at all times.

Match Mike Jenkins with Larry Fitzgerald

Mike Jenkins has been nursing a hamstring injury ever since October 30th, when he hurt it against the Eagles.

He plans on returning to the field this Sunday and should be matched with Fitzgerald rather than Terrance Newman.

Newman has had plenty of issues in the past with taller and lengthy wide receivers. It dates all the way back to issues jumping with Plaxico Burress to recent struggles against Calvin Johnson and Brandon Marshall.

It seems like opposing teams are targeting Newman when they know they can win a jump-ball contest.

Although I believe Newman is a good corner, I’m tired of seeing his back turned while receivers jump over him.

If Jenkins is ready to play Sunday like he says, No. 21 should be glued to the hip of No. 11.

Dez Bryant Needs to Make Plays Consistently

Fans of America’s Team have all enjoyed Laurent Robinson’s emergence as a strong No. 2 receiver.

So if you think the fans have noticed it, then of course the Cardinals have too.

Earlier in the season, Dez Bryant began a disappearing act in the second half of games.

And although he’s gotten past that, he still hasn’t delivered for four quarters of a game.

Meanwhile, Robinson has four games this season with at least five receptions and has scored at least one touchdown in the past five straight games.

Dez has two games of five or more catches.

Granted, some of Robinson’s production is due to the fact that teams are paying Dez a lot of attention, but Dez needs to warrant that attention for four quarters.

He has 26 receptions this season in the first half, but only 11 in the second and one in overtime.

Including Jason Witten, the Cowboys have one of the most talented receiving corps in the NFL.

If Dez can play for 60 minutes, the Cardinals stand no chance.