Entering the season, a primetime duel between the Cardinals and Cowboys seemed like football nirvana. David Johnson and Ezekiel Elliott in the same game? Patrick Peterson vs. Dez Bryant? Tyrann Mathieu and Chandler Jones attacking the game's best offensive line? This was supposed to be a matchup between two legit contenders in the NFC.

A lot can change in two weeks, though, especially in the NFL.

The Cardinals do not appear to be a contender. Johnson is out for a few months with a wrist injury. Carson Palmer looks like a corpse. As a result, Larry Fitzgerald's impact has been minimized. And the Cardinals are 1-1 after barely beating the Andrew Luck-less Colts in overtime last week.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys are 1-1 after a beatdown in Denver, where they fell to the Broncos by 25 points. After, Jason Garrett admitted that Elliott gave up on a couple of plays during a game in which he totaled fewer than 10 rushing yards. Garrett also threw Dak Prescott under the bus for a performance that featured 20 incompletions, 4.8 yards per attempt, and two picks. And their already weak secondary -- now dealing with multiple injuries -- is more depleted than Cersei Lannister's morality bar.

So yeah, both teams could desperately use a win in Week 3 of "Monday Night Football."

This isn't the matchup we expected a couple weeks ago, but it's the matchup we're getting. That's better news for the Cowboys, who shouldn't be ashamed of their outing in Denver. The Cowboys -- not the Cardinals -- are still the team that still looks like it has a chance to head toward the postseason. The Cowboys are the team I'm taking in this game, mainly because they have the better quarterback. 

The prediction: Cowboys 24, Cardinals 21

How to watch, stream

  • When: Monday at 8:30 p.m. ET
  • Where: University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona
  • TV: ESPN
  • Streaming: WatchESPN  

The Cardinals' rough start

Besides the difference in quarterback play, which we'll get to a bit later, the main reason I'm taking the Cowboys is due to the current overall state of the Cardinals: not good. In Week 1, they led the Lions 17-9 late in the third quarter. They let that lead completely evaporate, giving up 26 unanswered before scoring a late-garbage time touchdown. Losing to the Lions inside their dome isn't the worst thing to happen to a football team, but barely beating the Andrew Luck-less Colts in overtime is an alarming sign. To force overtime against the Colts, who might be the second worst team in football behind the Jets, the Cardinals needed to score 10 unanswered in the fourth quarter. 

The Cardinals aren't who we thought they were. In our season predictions, I picked them to snag a wild-card spot. Will Brinson even picked them to win the Super Bowl! They aren't a Super Bowl team. Based off the way they're playing, they're not even a playoff team.

One reason for that? They're missing their best player.

No replacing David Johnson

If you play Fantasy Football, chances are Kerwynn Williams was the hottest player on the waiver wire after Johnson's Week 1 injury. Williams disappointed in Week 2, picking up 22 yards on nine carries. Chris Johnson was better, totaling 44 yards on 11 carries. Still, neither player adequately replaced Johnson -- and with good reason.

Johnson is irreplaceable. He's the best all-around running back in the game. Last year, he led the league in yards from scrimmage with 2,118. Pro Football Focus named Johnson -- a running back -- the best receiver of the 2016 season. He would've been a legitimate MVP candidate if the Cardinals didn't finish below .500.

So it's understandable then why the Cardinals are struggling on offense without him. They're averaging 19.5 points per game so far. Last year, they averaged 26.1 points per game.

I would say that the Cardinals' running backs could thrive on Monday night against a Cowboys defense that gouged for 178 rushing yards last week, but then again, the Cardinals' running backs failed to produce against a horrific Colts defense. The point being, the Cardinals' running game without Johnson isn't any good. And I wouldn't favor them in this matchup -- and not many others.

I think it'll be the Cowboys, not the Cardinals, who bounce back in this area. Not because the Cowboys boast a strong run defense -- they don't -- but because the Cardinals don't own a good ground game.

Can Ezekiel Elliott get back on track?

Ezekiel Elliott will bounce back. His outing against the Broncos -- eight yards on nine carries -- is an anomaly. In 18 career games (including the postseason), he's failed to hit 50 yards just once, with last Sunday being that instance. Even great players experience bad games, and a lot of Elliott's struggles had to do with game script, considering the Cowboys trailed the entire game and Prescott threw it 50 times.

Don't expect Elliott to struggle again. The Cardinals aren't a great football team, so it seems unlikely the Cowboys will be put in another gigantic hole. Even though the Cardinals are allowing just 2.8 yards per carry this season, the Cowboys' offensive line holds the advantage in this game -- as they do almost every weeks. The Cardinals' run defense looks so dominant this year in part because they played the Lions (a team that's usually allergic to running) and the Colts (ditto).

The Cowboys are not those teams. Elliott has hit 100 yards in 50 percent of his NFL games. Expect him to get back on track in a close game in which the Cowboys can lean on him.

It's not as if the Cardinals can simply copy the Broncos' blueprint. Just ask Bruce Arians:

Carson Palmer on the decline

It's not just about the Cardinals' stagnant ground game. It's also about Palmer, 37, and his inability to fight off old age. Palmer teased us at the end of last season, when he started showing signs of life after a disastrous start to the season, but ultimately, he's back to playing subpar football.

Through two games, Palmer's completing 54.8 percent of his passes (a career low), averaging 7.2 yards per attempt, throwing a touchdown on 2.4 percent of his passes (almost a career low), and tossing an interception on 4.8 percent of his passes (almost a career high). His passer rating? 65.6, which would be a career low.

And it's not as if Palmer's bad numbers are due to the level of competition. He's played the Lions and Colts. A year ago, the Lions' and Colts' defenses both ranked in the bottom five in DVOA. This is not aberration. In Palmer's last 17 games (dating back to Week 1 of last year), he has an 84.5 passer rating.

The health of the Cowboys' secondary

With that being said, keep an eye on the status of the Cowboys' secondary, because it's banged up. At one point during the game against the Broncos, the Cowboys were down to two healthy cornerbacks, which definitely played a role in their inability to stop a Trevor Siemian-led team.

Chidobe Awuzie (hamstring) won't play. Neither will Nolan Carroll (concussion). The most important member of the secondary, Orlando Scandrick, plans to play after he missed the loss to Denver. 

Still, even with Scandrick healthy, this is a weak unit. And Palmer will, at the very least, have some opportunities to take advantage of them. Given Palmer's output in the first two weeks, I'm still not optimistic about his chances to break out, but the chances will be there.

Dak Prescott will rebound

Again, I'm mainly taking the Cowboys because they have the better of the two quarterbacks. There's no doubt that Prescott struggled in Denver when he went 30 of 50 for 238 yards, two touchdowns, two picks, and a 68.6 passer rating. But like Elliott, Prescott will most likely rebound.

Experiencing a bad game against the Broncos' defense isn't something to be ashamed about. The Broncos' defense -- with Von Miller, Brandon Marshall, Aqib Talib, Chris Harris, etc. -- is arguably the best defense in all of football. So far this year, they're ninth in DVOA, sixth in yards allowed, and tied for 11th in points allowed (only 19 points per game). It's way too early to be using this year's rankings as a way to show how good or bad a team is in any area, so let's go to last year's rankings considering this is pretty much the same exact unit. Last year, they ranked first in DVOA, fourth in yards allowed, fourth in points allowed, and tied for seventh in takeaways. The year before, they ranked first in DVOA, first in yards allowed, fourth in points allowed, and tied for seventh in takeaways.

The point being, Prescott struggled against the best defense in football. It happens. Let's not overreact to one bad outing.

On the other hand, Arizona's defense isn't the Broncos' defense. That's not a knock on Arizona, either. Patrick Peterson is a top-notch cornerback. Last year, they were the third-best defense by DVOA, and finished second in yards allowed, 14th in points allowed, and tied for fourth in turnovers. They're going to give the Cowboys some problems.

But the Cardinals' defense hasn't been great to this point, ranking 18th in yards allowed and 24th in points allowed, though they are eighth in DVOA. Again, it's too early to leap to any conclusions this season, but let's just note that those rankings are boosted by a date with the Jacoby Brissett-led Colts.

Anyway, Prescott's posted a passer rating below 100 just six times in his career (not counting Week 17 of last year, when he threw eight passes before heading to the bench for Tony Romo). Almost every time, he's responded with a great game. Here's his list of passer ratings the game after a sub-100 passer rating performance: 103.7, 141.8, 99.0, 148.3, 68.6 (vs. Denver in Week 2).

We'll see how he responds against the Cardinals.

Note: All rankings are accurate as of Sunday afternoon.