Code Blue: Cowboys hemorrhage self respect vs lowly Cards, self destruct in 27-17 loss

The Dallas Cowboys are a bad football team. With the entire football world watching, well, everyone whose provider wasn't Youtube TV, the up-and-down team of the year returned to the supposedly friendly confines of AT&T Stadium. The Cowboys had played just three home games entering the contest, going 2-0-1 and averaging 41 points a game thanks to their explosive offense.

The day began with carnival barker Jerry Jones teasing that the club had at least one trade consummated, but he wanted to wait until Tuesday to announce the deal. Of course, that was the omen, as the Cowboys looked embarrassingly bad against the 2-5 Arizona Cardinals, rendering any acquisition a huge question mark as to why give up picks to try and save this season.

Dallas took the field a few hours later, only to get dog walked by the Cardinals. The Cowboys had two fumbles inside Cardinals territory, to match two go-for-it coaching decisions that went bad, and it all led to a 27-17 defeat.

The loss dropped the Cowboys to 3-5-1 heading into their bye week.

While the defense was once again a total bust, for the second straight game the vaunted Dak Prescott-led offense was missing in action. The Cowboys were shut out in the first half, and it once again started with a stalled opening drive. This time, instead of settling for a field goal like they did against Denver in Week 8, Dallas was stopped on a fourth-down attempt.

They'd punt on their net drive and fumble on their third, quickly going down 10-0. The team was able to block a punt and recover for a score, but the defense allowed the Cardinals to march down the field in response and erase the score with a touchdown of their own.

Dallas' late comeback effort was thwarted when, down 17, they chose to go for it from the Arizona 21 instead of kicking a field goal to cut the deficit to two scores.

What made things even more disappointing is the defense allowed journeyman quarterback Jacoby Brissett carve them up, as Marvin Harrison Jr. and Trey McBride got whatever they wanted, repeatedly moving the chains on third down. CB DaRon Bland was targeted over and over and over again by the Arizona attack.

The Cowboys enter their bye week without much hope based on their performance, even if they aren't technically out of the playoff race. Now the attention will turn to what kind of draft picks they're going to give up on Tuesday.

This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Cowboys fall to 3-5-1 with trashy performance in 27-17 loss to Cards