By John Meylor
Dallas Cowboys running back Miles Sanders rushes the ball against the Chicago Bears during the second half at Chicago’s Soldier Field. (Matt Marton/Imagn)
CoDeQua (a word amalgamating coach, defense and quarterback) is a weekly NFL column providing a snapshot of the league through the lens of the most interesting stories in each of the aforementioned categories.
Three weeks of NFL football are in the books, and with the month of September nearly finished, more clarity has come for the bigger picture of the National Football League. As the hierarchy of teams within the 2025 season is established, three teams out in the Southwest — the Las Vegas Raiders, the Dallas Cowboys and the Arizona Cardinals — all lack clarity amidst bumpy starts to their seasons. In a bizarre week 3 Sunday that saw football shenanigans across the country, including seven blocked kicks and starts for five backup quarterbacks, all three of these teams suffered losses that shook the core of their identities. Heading into week 4, here are three questions the teams face as they host vital and shockingly early must-win contests in each of their respective home stadiums:
Is it time for Raiders coach Pete Carroll to panic?
No team had a bigger shakeup during the 2025 NFL offseason than the Las Vegas Raiders. Following a decade of mediocrity and drama, including five head coaching changes and a .396 winning percentage, the Raiders took a massive swing this summer, announcing their presence in the American Football Conference by bringing in NFL legend Tom Brady to their ownership group, signing two-time Pro Bowl quarterback Geno Smith and, perhaps most importantly, hiring former USC and Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.
In his 15 previous seasons with the Seahawks, Carroll built a Hall of Fame-level resume, coaching the team to a 137-89-1 record, countless playoff appearances, five NFC West titles, two NFC Championship victories and a Super Bowl win. By bringing aboard Carroll, Smith and Brady, Las Vegas accelerated its franchise rebuild and made it clear the priority was to put winning at the forefront, setting expectations for results in the very near future.
Three games into the season, the effects of these changes have yet to be felt. Carroll’s squad started the season by dominating a young and rebuilding New England Patriots team in a 20-13 victory that saw Smith set a franchise record for most passing yards in a quarterback’s debut start as a Raider. The high of that victory didn’t last long though, as in following losses of 22-9 and 41-24 to the Los Angeles Chargers and Washington Commanders, respectively, Las Vegas has looked utterly pedestrian.
Execution mistakes in all three phases of the game across the two losses, as well as particularly atrocious offensive line coaching, have resulted in Carroll’s feet being held to the fire much sooner than expected. In his postgame presser following the loss to the Commanders on Sunday, Carroll said the team’s problems “stem more from a lack of physicality rather than issues with scheme,” and the past two losses have certainly shown it.
Among the overall failures, the offensive line play is the worst of Las Vegas’ many problems. Through three weeks, Smith is tied for second in the league in sacks taken (12) and rookie running back Ashton Jeanty has, somehow, gotten 101% of his rushing yards after contact. Per PFF, the starting offensive line for Las Vegas has a grade of 50.4 on the season, making it one of the absolute worst in the league.
With the 1-2 start and sleepy play from some of the team’s most important units, as well as calls from the fans to fire the offensive line coach, his son Brennan Carroll, is it time for Raider fans to sell their emotional stock in this team early? Absolutely not. Despite the slow start, Carroll is still what he’s always been: a Hall of Fame coach who has shown an ability to win at all levels of the game like very few coaches in the history of the sport have.
Despite the offseason noise from Carroll, Smith and Brady, the projected win total for Las Vegas still sat at 6.5 wins, and a slow start is expected in an AFC West division that boasted three playoff teams in 2024 helmed by coaches who will surely be contemporaries of Carroll’s in the Hall of Fame down the line.
This Sunday, the Raiders host a topsy-turvy 1-2 Chicago Bears team at Allegiant Stadium and it will act as a get-right game as Carroll looks to snap Las Vegas’ short losing streak. Following their loss to Washington, Carroll said: “If you give up big plays, you’re no good. We were no good today.”
With this extensive focus on big plays aligning with a matchup against a Chicago team that ranks in the top three in the league in explosive play rate, per NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Sunday looks to be Carroll’s chance to put his money where his gum-chewing mouth is and provide a blueprint for long-term Raiders success. As a frisky, young roster led by hardened veterans at the top like Carroll and Smith, it would be foolish to fully close the book on this Las Vegas team.
How bad is the Cowboys’ defense?
Out in Dallas, in the biggest market in all of football, a porous defense contaminated by both mistakes and injuries has been the center of national attention. Following an offseason centered entirely around the will-they-won’t-they of the team’s standoff with defensive All-Pro Micah Parsons (who was traded to the Green Bay Packers a week before kickoff), much was made of what Dallas would look like with the subtraction of Parsons, and with the addition of new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus.
Through three weeks, the results have been disastrous. The defense is ranked 30th in total defense (allowing 397.7 yards per game and 11 total touchdowns), holds the 32nd-ranked pass defense (288 yards per game allowed) and, for good measure, has allowed the most completions (11) and touchdowns (five) of 25 or more yards through three weeks in NFL history.
This early-season tire fire comes in a relatively soft section of the schedule, too. Their last two opponents, the dysfunctional New York Giants and self-destructive Chicago Bears, have a combined record of 1-5. With injuries mounting (through two weeks, starting defensive backs Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland, as well as newly acquired defensive tackle Kenny Clark, have all appeared on the Dallas injury report with various concerns), Texas’ football royalty is staring down the barrel of being potentially the worst defense of the past decade of NFL football.
The Cowboys now find themselves heading into week 4 reaping the seeds of their defensive offseason decisions as they welcome Parsons back to Dallas just a month after his trade. With revenge on his mind and the Packers building the cornerstones of a defensive juggernaut, ranking first in scoring defense at just 14.7 points per game, the Cowboys are facing the potential end of their season just a month in. For a team just a couple of years removed from what Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called their “most humiliating loss of all time,” Dallas looks poised to endure utter domination at the hands of Green Bay this Sunday.
What are the stakes for Kyler Murray this season?
Due to an extremely soft opening and the bizarre vibes surrounding the wild NFC West, the Arizona Cardinals’ 2-1 start has mostly flown under the radar, and alongside it the current state of former first overall pick and franchise quarterback Kyler Murray.
The Cardinals have often been the little brother of the otherwise successful and big-market NFC West division, but in 2019 they looked to change that by drafting Murray as the No. 1 overall pick. Murray’s big-play upside and singular dynamism made him one of the most lauded top prospects of this generation of football, and he started his career strong, earning Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2019 and two Pro Bowl selections in 2020 and 2021.
Six seasons in, however, the story is a bit odder. Injury concerns, contract issues and a poorly constructed roster have been the biggest headlines for Arizona. Murray’s individual standing as a cornerstone quarterback has also been middling, ranking just 12th in passing yards per game and 18th in total touchdowns among eligible quarterbacks since he entered the league.
Although he led Arizona to its only playoff berth in the last 10 years in 2021, that playoff game warranted his career-worst start: a blowout loss to the rival Los Angeles Rams in which Murray threw no touchdowns, two interceptions and posted a ghastly 40.9 passer rating.
Additionally, since signing a multiyear extension in 2022, Murray and the Cardinals have posted a 14-25 record and Murray has missed 15 games due to injury. Six years in, his reputation stands as a quarterback who offers as many baffling turnovers as explosive flashes, and the case stands for him as at least a partial bust.
With coach Jonathan Gannon three years into his regime and the Cardinals boasting a 2-1 record on the season, including shaky wins over the otherwise low-tier New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers (a combined 1-5) and a loss to the injury-riddled San Francisco 49ers, Murray and the franchise are facing a major crossroads.
Thursday night they host the rival Seahawks at home in a rare prime-time appearance for the franchise, and with the nation’s eyes on them, if Murray’s performance can’t inspire confidence, the direction of the Cardinals faces total jeopardy, making this undoubtedly the biggest game of his career up to this point.