A win is a win.
The Dallas Cowboys were the winning team on Sunday in Indianapolis, but goodness did they make it more difficult than it had to be.
The fourth quarter was full of all sorts of chaos and near the end of it things were very dark.
To be clear, the fact that the game was this close against a team of Indianapolis’ caliber, what with how they have already begun to sell off assets, is representative of an important takeaway on the macro level. But the Cowboys won, they are now 4-5, and they are still
well alive in their quest to accomplish their goals this season.
This was a win that the Cowboys needed in the worst way and so perhaps it will serve as a catalyst moving forward. Still, lessons can be learned as noted.
Perhaps the Cowboys will feel that what happened was enough to be active during the coming week’s trade deadline action. We will see.
Wow.
First Quarter
The Colts won the toss and deferred which put the Cowboys offense at work first. Given that George Pickens was inactive for the game there was some holding of breath involved.
An early third down conversion to Jonathan Mingo suggested that things were going to go well for the Cowboys. They stalled right after that though, but they were close enough (thanks to the Colts kicking it out of bounds to start the game) to be in field goal range and Brandon Aubrey’s 45-yard attempt was good. Dallas led 3-0.
You will never believe it, but the defense pitched a three and out right after. Early on the game was starting as well as it possibly could have.
It was then that things turned. Two plays after the Cowboys got the ball back they were facing a third down… and Dak Prescott got caught from behind. The ball popped loose, Indy recovered, and they suddenly very much in business.
A few moments later… the Colts were in the endzone and had taken a 7-3 lead.
The Cowboys ran the ball amid a bunch of penalties on the next drive and took things all the way to the end of the quarter.
Second Quarter
The second quarter began with Dallas facing a 3rd and 1 from the Indianapolis 9-yard line.
On 3rd-and-1 Brian Schottenheimer called a bit of a trick play where Dak Prescott pitched it to an in-motion CeeDee Lamb. This seemed like doing way too much and Lamb lost yardage.
Dallas rolled the dice on fourth down, though. All was looking lost and then Prescott found Jake Ferguson in the back of the endzone for a huge score. Serious props to Ferguson for fighting the sun in his eyes and for having strong enough hands to hold on.
One of the benefits of this drive was that it took a really long time which allowed the Cowboys defense to get some serious rest. They responded by capitalizing on that with their second three-and-out of the game. Unfortunately the Cowboys had their own which gave Indy the ball right back.
The game saw its third straight three and out, but this one had some pop to it. As the Colts were trying to make magic on third down… Caleb Downs said absolutely not with his second sack of the season.
It turned into a bunch of nothing for the Cowboys, though. Tyler Goodson converted on the first play of the possession so it was not another three-and-out, but Dallas failed to pick up a second down right away so it was as close as possible without actually being one. The Cowboys remained in the lead 10-7 and with half of the second quarter remaining and Indy set to receive the ball after halftime… it felt like a game-defining possession.
It was yet another three-and-out for Indy, although just barely as Laquon Treadwell made a heroic catch on third down where his feet were ruled to be out of bounds. Still they punted.
This marked the fourth time in the game that the Cowboys defense gave the offense the ball off of a stop. No points were scored off of the first three so putting a stop to that was obviously important.
As important as it was… it did not happen. Penalties derailed a drive where Dallas was legitimately moving the ball, although on plays that wound up getting wiped out. The Cowboys punted and the Colts took over with 2:11 left in the half.
They were unable to do anything yet again. Dallas burned a timeout at one point to preserve the clock and took over at their own 25-yard line with 49 seconds left and two timeouts in their pocket. Everybody was curious what they were going to turn it into.
At last… the dam broke.
With the Cowboys in some long distance field goal range they did what they did not do last week and tried CeeDee Lamb deep. This makes sense because, you know, he’s CeeDee Lamb.
It turns out CeeDee Lamb is pretty good!
That about did it and the Cowboys took a 17-7 lead into the locker room for halftime.
Third Quarter
The first half theme continued for Indianapolis as their offense sputtered to start after the break. It was another three-and-out.
Unfortunately so was Dallas’ possession. This marked the sixth time that the offense got the ball off of a defensive stop and the fifth time that they did nothing with it.
Finally, someone put together a drive. It was Indianapolis who put together the first double-digit play drive since Dallas’ first touchdown of the game. Thankfully they only squeaked out a field goal as a result of it all, but they narrowed things down to a one-possession game at 17-10.
Points were absolutely vital on the next possession and they acted like it. CeeDee Lamb got things going and almost had a touchdown, but he was unable to keep both feet in bounds. Dallas did scored, but it was by way of a Brandon Aubrey field goal which took things back to a two-score lead at 20-10.
That score did not last long, though. The Cowboys defense had been doing such a great job at holding… but they were never going to pitch a perfect game. Daniel Jones found Ashton Dulin and it was over.
This was suddenly a 20-17 game with just a little bit left in the third quarter. It felt a like like the way the third quarter ended last week, to be honest. This one did officially end with Dallas driving to try and put the game away.
Fourth Quarter
It appeared as if the Cowboys did indeed put an end to the game. Kind of.
Dak Prescott found CeeDee Lamb with pressure in his face which was impressive enough. Lamb was able to miraculously field the pass that was underthrown as a result of the pressure, and even more amazingly he realized that he was not down by contact.
CeeDee proceeded to get up, with all sorts of chaos and franticness happening around him, and picked up an extra chunk of yardage. Unfortunately as he finally came to the ground he fumbled and Indianapolis recovered.
It took a Colts challenge to rule that Lamb did indeed fumble, but they won it and Indy took over.
All of a sudden the Colts were moving with energy. DaRon Bland got called for a pass interference penalty after they had already developed some positive momentum, and it was suddenly starting to feel very scary for Dallas.
But then a hero entered and his name was Quinnen Williams. He quite literally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by forcing a fumble that Shemar James was able to recover.
It should be noted that Dallas was backed up to start due to DeMarvion Overshown running onto the field to celebrate the turnover. You would think there would be a little more awareness going on in situations like this, but I digress.
The Cowboys were yet again unable to do anything with a stop generated by their defense and they punted the ball back to Indianapolis.
Indy took advantage this time. They got within long-distance field goal range and converted a 59-yard attempt to tie the game. Dallas took over with things square at 20 with just under six minutes left.
It took two and a half minutes, but the Cowboys got into field goal range themselves and were forced to take it. The attempt for Brandon Aubrey was from 50 yards out… and he pulled it left. Notably the broadcast showed that the snap bounced off of the ground, but he was able to cleanly attempt it. This left the Colts over three minutes to work with the game tied at 20.
The Cowboys burned all of their timeouts in an effort to preserve time to try to answer whatever the Colts did. ON 3rd and 8 the Colts tried to find Josh Downs to move the chains and Caleb Downs helped force the incompletion. You can’t write this stuff.
Indianapolis did convert a field goal after the fact though and took the lead late, 23-20. The Cowboys took over with 1:37 left and no timeouts to their name. It was on GOTI.
Right away… they delivered. Dak Prescott found Ryan Flournoy to put the Cowboys in field goal range and emotions were everywhere.
Shortly after… Flournoy even drew a pass interference penalty while in the endzone. He was a hero down the stretch.
With the field position what it was, the Colts very clearly let Javonte Williams walk into the endzone to preserve time themselves. Dallas took the lead again, 27-23, with 1:08 left and Indy still held two timeouts.
An early intentional grounding penalty put the Colts behind early, and then they had to press.
As they did… Caleb Downs sealed the deal with his first career interception!
Cowboys win. What a ride.
