Cowboys Restore Order in Division

Nine months after being embarrassed and exposed by the Arizona Cardinals, the Dallas Cowboys returned the favor Sunday.

Raghib Ismail’s 63-yard touchdown catch helped Dallas take a big early lead, and Greg Ellis snuffed Arizona’s comeback hopes with a 98-yard fumble return for another touchdown in a 35-7 victory.

The Cowboys (3-0) continued to prove they’re not as old or as bad as the Cardinals (1-3) made them look in a 20-7 playoff loss at Texas Stadium in January.

“I don’t know what it does for us, but I think it will change a lot of other people’s minds about who is the best team in this division,” said Dallas safety George Teague, who intercepted Jake Plummer’s first pass and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown.

The Cowboys got big plays and constant pressure from their defense and just enough offense to continue their best start since 1995. Dallas, the only unbeaten team in the NFC along with the St. Louis Rams, has defeated Arizona in 17 of 19 games.

“It sure feels a lot better than it did last time,” Cowboy Coach Chan Gailey said.

That playoff victory inflated Arizona’s hopes and made people believe the Cardinals were the new team to beat in the NFC East.

But they haven’t looked like that this season, instead falling back to mediocrity with a familiar pattern: slow starts and too many turnovers.

It happened again Sunday as Arizona fell behind 21-0 for the second time this season and committed five turnovers. The Cardinals had four turnovers in each of their previous three games.

Plummer threw three more interceptions, increasing his league-worst total to 12.