Cards romp as Dallas stars sit
Arizona forces eight turnovers, wins 27-3
ARLINGTON, Texas — Patrick Peterson hasn’t faced a starting quarterback in the preseason.
The three-time All-Pro cornerback for the Arizona Cardinals is getting himself in regular-season form anyway.
Peterson returned an interception 30 yards for a touchdown after Dallas decided to sit quarterback Dak Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott in what was supposed to be the dress rehearsal, and the Cardinals rolled to a 27-3 exhibition victory over the Cowboys on Sunday night.
The Cardinals (3-0) forced eight turnovers to give them 16 takeaways in the preseason. That included two muffed punts by Dallas (0-3), the second recovered for a touchdown by Trent Sherfield to open the scoring in the first quarter.
Prescott’s absence made it three straight weeks that Arizona didn’t face the opposing starter. San Diego’s Philip Rivers skipped the opener, and Drew Brees sat for New Orleans last week.
Josh Rosen, the 10th overall pick and likely backup to Bradford in the regular season, didn’t play after injuring the thumb on his throwing (right) hand in practice last week.
The Cowboys were missing center Travis Frederick and right guard Zack Martin, part of the reason Prescott didn’t play. The other reason was a longer-than-planned touchdown drive of 16 plays on Prescott’s final possession of the second preseason game against Cincinnati.
Owner Jerry Jones said last week he didn’t need to see Elliott, the 2016 NFL rushing leader as a rookie, in a preseason game. It figures to be the first time in three seasons that Elliott, who is healthy, will miss the entire preseason since starters are generally expected to sit in the finales.
“We know we are trying to evaluate players out here,” Jones said. “In general, our fans don’t want us to run and take unnecessary risk. That’s what you saw tonight. It was almost comical, relative to the turnover situation.”
Peterson stepped in front of Cooper Rush’s pass to Tavon Austin along the sideline and held the ball in the air most of the way on the easy stroll to the end zone. Rush, who won the backup job as a rookie with a strong preseason last year, was 11 of 17 for 93 yards with two interceptions.