Monday doubleheader

Cowboys full of follies in blowout; Chiefs run all over Bills.

CARDINALS 38, COWBOYS 10

ARLINGTON, Texas — Maybe Kyler Murray will lose a game on the home field of the Dallas Cowboys one of these days.

It wasn’t going to be on a night when the Arizona quarterback watched the star running back of his hometown team have another night of fumble-itis.

Murray accounted for three touchdowns in his first game back home as a pro, Ezekiel Elliott set up the visiting team’s first two TDs with fumbles and the Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys 38-10 on Monday night.

The speedy quarterback who won three high school championships and a Big 12 title at the home of the Cowboys improved to 7-0 as a starter at AT&T Stadium, throwing for two scores despite a rough start through the air and rushing for 74 yards and a TD.

“That’s not easy when that’s what everyone has been talking about all week,” Arizona Coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “He’s probably had this one circled on his calendar since it came out. But I thought he handled himself well.”

It was the “Monday Night Football” debut for Murray, a star in high school football-obsessed Texas while playing in the Dallas suburbs, and Kingsbury, who also had a happy first trip to his native Texas as an NFL coach.

Fired after six seasons at Texas Tech in 2018 without any winning records in Big 12 games, Kingsbury was hired by Arizona soon after and has the Cardinals (4-2)and tied for second place in the tough NFC West. Arizona is above .500 this late in the season for the first time since 2015, its most recent playoff year.

Andy Dalton had the rest of Dallas’ four turnovers with two interceptions in his first start for the Cowboys in place of injured star Dak Prescott.

While the Dallas offense didn’t look anything close to the NFL-leading unit it was with Prescott — and lost the fourth of its five projected starting offensive linemen in four-time All-Pro Zack Martin (first-quarter concussion)

— Elliott’s miscues led to the fifth straight game in which the Cowboys have trailed by at least two touchdowns.

The Cowboys (2-4) overcame two of those deficits, which is why they were guaranteed to stay in first place in the woeful NFC East no matter what happened in the last of three straight home games — and a third straight road game for Arizona.

“The record, it is what it is right now, the division is what it is right now, but it’s still early,” Dalton said. “There’s a lot of football left to be played, and for us, we’ve got to improve as a football team.”

Elliott was benched briefly after the two-time rushing champion lost a second fumble in the same game for the first time in his career. He has five fumbles (four lost) already this season — one shy of his career high for an entire season as the NFL’s worst turnover margin dropped to minus-12 with four giveaways and no takeaways.

While Murray misfired on eight of his first 11 passes and finished 9 of 24 for 188 yards, he hit Christian Kirk in stride on an 80-yard touchdown for a 21-0 lead in the second quarter.

(AP/ Michael Ainsworth - above) ABOVE Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker strips the ball from Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott (21) in the first half Monday in Arlington, Texas. Elliott fumbled twice and was held to 49 yards in a 38-10 loss for the Cowboys in their first game since losing quarterback Dak Prescott to injury.

(AP/Jeffrey T. Barnes - right) RIGHT Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire (center) runs the ball for Kansas City during the first half against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y. Edwards-Helaire rushed for 161 yards to help the Chiefs in a 26-17 victory to rebound from their first loss of the season.

(AP/Michael Ainsworth) Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals celebrates after running for a touchdown in the second half Monday against the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas. Murray also threw for two scores in Arizona’s 38-10 victory.