TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- It will be bruised vs. battered, the halt against the lame, when the Dallas Cowboys play the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.

The Cowboys, whose 5-4 record is good enough for a tie for first in the weak NFC East, probably won't have Troy Aikman and certainly will be without Michael Irvin.

Arizona will be playing without Jake Plummer for the fourth consecutive game, and likely won't have Michael Pittman, the hard-running back who gave life to the Cardinals' moribund ground game in last week's 23-19 upset of the Detroit Lions.

All-Pro offensive guard Larry Allen, who has never missed any of his 98 games with Dallas, is out with a knee injury. Cardinals defensive end Andre Wadsworth isn't back from arthroscopic knee surgery. Deion Sanders is questionable. There are more, but you get the idea.

"The teams will certainly look a little bit different than the preseason rosters, but that's part of the deal," said Jason Garrett, who replaced Aikman and directed Dallas to a 27-13 victory over Green Bay last week. "The good teams are able to deal with those adversities."

Dallas won that game despite playing without Aikman, Irvin and Emmitt Smith, the first time all three sat out the same game in 10 years.

Smith plans to play Sunday with his fractured right hand in a protective cast, and that doesn't surprise Arizona coach Vince Tobin.

"Emmitt hasn't missed very many games during his career," Tobin said, "and I'm sure he's had a lot of games that he hasn't felt 100 percent and he's lined up and played. That's the kind of player he is. That's the reason he's one of the top backs to play the game."

The Cowboys will augment the protective "glove" that Smith will wear by attaching a hip pad to it.

"Right now, I don't foresee any major fears," Smith said. "I know it's going to get hit, so I'm already prepared for that."

The game is the second home sellout for the Cardinals this season. In the 11 times the Cowboys have played at Arizona, eight have been sellouts. Of course, the Cowboys might not know how to play in front of empty seats. They've played in front of sellout crowds in every game, home and away, for eight years.

In Tempe, there will almost be as many Cowboys fans as there will be fans rooting for the Cardinals. Maybe that will make it seem like a home game for Dallas, which is just 1-4 on the road. The Cowboys led in all four losses, but were outscored in the fourth quarter 50-7 in those games.

"We've played good coming out of the blocks in those games, and then we've not been able to finish the job on the road," Dallas coach Chan Gailey said. "If we're going to be a team that tries to vie for a championship, that's something that we've got to be able to do."

The game will pit brother against brother. Jason Garrett's brother John is quarterbacks coach for the Cardinals. The two have been competing so long that this matchup is nothing special, Jason said.

"We still can't play one-on-one basketball because the games usually end in a fight after a couple of points," he said. "I look forward to visiting with him a little bit, but during the game it's no big deal."

Jason Garrett improved to 6-2 as an NFL starter. Last week, he completed 13 of 23 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns.

"I've been very fortunate to be in a very good environment," Garrett said. "The only thing I've ever tried to do is go in and be one-eleventh of the offense, just do my thing as best I can and let everybody else do theirs. I think when Troy goes down or Emmitt goes down, or Michael, we have such a team spirit here, and have had that for a lot of years, that everyone just rallies around the cause."

Dave Brown, coming off his best game for Arizona, will get his fourth consecutive start in place of Plummer, who could be back from a broken right ring finger next weekend.

But if Pittman can't play, that would be a big blow to an offense that obviously benefited from his aggressive style. Adrian Murrell, averaging 2.5 yards per carry, would start in Pittman's absence, with Mario Bates also getting increased playing time.

With Plummer at quarterback, the Cowboys beat the Cardinals 35-7 on Oct. 3, a blowout that helped ease the pain of a first-round homefield loss to Arizona in last season's playoffs.

DALLAS Season schedule and results

ARIZONA Season schedule and results

September 12 @Washington W 41-35 September 20 Atlanta W 24-7 October 3 Arizona W 35-7 October 10 @Philadelphia L 10-13 October 18 @NY Giants L 10-13 October 24 Washington W 38-20 October 31 @Indianapolis L 24-34 November 8 @Minnesota L 17-27 November 14 Green Bay W 27-13 November 21 @Arizona 4:15pm ET November 25 Miami 4:15pm ET December 5 @New England 8:20pm ET December 12 Philadelphia 1:00pm ET December 19 NY Jets 4:15pm ET December 24 @New Orleans 3:05pm ET January 2 NY Giants 4:05pm ET

September 12 @Philadelphia W 25-24 September 19 @Miami L 16-19 September 27 San Francisco L 10-24 October 3 @Dallas L 7-35 October 10 NY Giants W 14-3 October 17 Washington L 10-24 October 31 New England L 3-27 November 7 @NY Jets L 7-12 November 14 Detroit W 23-19 November 21 Dallas 4:15pm ET November 28 @NY Giants 1:00pm ET December 5 Philadelphia 4:05pm ET December 12 @Washington 1:00pm ET December 19 Buffalo 8:20pm ET December 26 @Atlanta 1:00pm ET January 2 @Green Bay 1:00pm ET

Records source: STATS, Inc.

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