Cowboys at Cardinals: 'Fired-Up' Dallas Makes 4 Roster Moves After Trevon Diggs Injury
FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys head west to the desert to face a former division rival, the Arizona Cardinals. ... and they will do so driven by the emotion of the Trevon Diggs season-ending knee injury ... and, they hope, helped by the roster moves made in part as a result of that unfortunate turn.
The Cowboys on Saturday moved Diggs to IR while signing special-teams ace C.J. Goodwin to the 53-man as his "replacement'' of sorts.
Cowboys' CJ Goodwin
Additionally, Dallas elevated to the roster centers Brock Hoffman and Sean Harlow from the practice squad because starting center Tyler Biadasz suffered a hamstring injury on Thursday and is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game.
Additionally, Tyron Smith (knee) has been added to the injury report. So he is now questionable for the game at the Cardinals, joining fellow O-linemen Biadasz and Zack Martin.
Dallas and the Cardinals used to meet twice a year from 1970 through 2001, back when the Cards were in the NFC East ... and the Cowboys hold a 56-33-1 advantage all time.
Weirdly, the Cardinals have surprisingly won six of the last seven matchups dating back to 2008. This, however, is a much different Cowboys team. Dallas has won its first two games by a combined 70-10, including a 40-0 shutout of the Giants and a 30-10 manhandling of the Jets.
Dallas has been so dominant in its first two games, that it now has the chance to make history in Week 3. If the Cowboys score 30 against the Cardinals, while holding Arizona to 10 or less, they will be the first team in NFL history to score 30 or more points while allowing 10 or less in their first three games.
“We’re 2-0 because of execution and how we prepared,” linebacker Micah Parsons said. “That’s why we’re 2-0. We’re not 2-0 because of anything else. It’s just remember what’s our process, where are we at in our process.”
The Dallas defense will be without one of its anchors for the remainder of the season, as corner Trevon Diggs tore the ACL in his left knee in practice on Thursday. That could be a blow to a defense that's notched 10 sacks and seven takeaways without one turnover by the Cowboys offense.
The Cardinals are winless, but they've played in two close games in a rebuilding year under new head coach Jonathan Gannon.
“The momentum here and there — I don’t really buy into all that,” Gannon said. "I buy into execution, coaching and playing well. That’s what we’ve got to do better at for four quarters because we’ve shown that we can do it for a period of time. We’ve just got to make sure we do it for 60 minutes.”
Arizona is without starting quarterback Kyler Murray, who is still recovering from his own torn ACL suffered last season, and safety Budda Baker, who was placed on injured reserve earlier this week. Maybe the Cardinals can find some fuel from overcoming obstacles. And after the Diggs injury? The fired-up Cowboys - even with the injury issues - seem intent on doing just that.
