Nothing comes easy for the 2026 Dallas Cowboys, but they managed to get back in the win column on Sunday with a 27-23 win at the Indianapolis Colts. It is their first win scoring less than 30 points since last season’s miraculous comeback in Week 12 vs. the Eagles, which gave Brian Schottenheimer’s team their first winning streak of that 2025 season.
At the end of another rollercoaster game, this fourth win of the season goes in the same bucket as the other narrow win the Cowboys have against another AFC
South opponent – Dak Prescott refusing to lose with the ball in his hands, and making the plays when it mattered most to ensure this. The Texans win was defined by Prescott and CeeDee Lamb making all the plays when it mattered, and without George Pickens this time out, Lamb’s big day was even more crucial.
There were plays by the defense in the first half that made this game feel like it wouldn’t come close to needing any late game heroics from the offense, but the offense didn’t capitalize early. Then, there were breakdowns on defense that helped the Colts storm back, but also more rallying by Christian Parker’s side of the ball to ultimately put this in the win column.
Let’s get to some notes on the gut-it-out performance in Indy.
Too Many 3rd Downs
For the second straight week, the Cowboys faced 16 third-down attempts. The Cowboys have faced more third downs on offense than their opponents in every game since the Packers loss.
Dak Prescott’s third-down fumble in the first quarter was the second straight week the Cowboys had a disastrous negative play in a formation that calls on Javonte Williams to stay in and block. This time around, the Cowboys also had Jake Ferguson in the game. Ferguson was the only pass option running a hot route against the pressure the Colts brought on this play, yet somehow the defense had an answer to bracket him with two defenders while also getting to Prescott.
The strip sack set the Colts offense up on a short field they capitalized on to take a 7-3 lead. The Colts would not get points again until midway through the third quarter. While the Cowboys did get two touchdowns before this, they also punted on all four other possessions in this stretch. The touchdown drive that came in response to being down 10-7 got a rare Javonte Williams receiving play that went for positive yards on a 3rd-and-4, then overcame a 2nd-and-19 after a Brevyn Spann-Ford holding penalty, and was gifted an automatic first down after facing 2nd-and-15 on a Tyler Guyton penalty. Even after all this, it still took a 4th-and-2 attempt in the red zone to get points on the board with Jake Ferguson’s touchdown.
The other touchdown the Cowboys got came a little bit easier, rewarding a drive that saw what felt like the first successful scramble drill in a long time. Lamb and Prescott made the play when the Cowboys decided to throw on 3rd-and-1, hooking up on the scramble drill for 22 yards. One play later, Lamb got behind Charvarius Ward for his 44-yard touchdown to go ahead 17-7.
Yet again, the Cowboys felt in control of a game, but were left scrambling and fighting for their life to actually finish by the fourth quarter.
The Cowboys had a perfect 34/34 run-pass split in this game, and Dak Prescott’s 9.9 yards per attempt was a season high, but it still felt like the offense majored in wanting to be in third downs, makings things hard on themselves yet again, and not putting the game away on their own terms early. Instead, they left it until late for more QB heroics that paint a clear picture of what this team is really all about.
Defensive Resolve
The number one thing the Cowboys defense needs to fix following these last two wild games is limiting the explosive plays for touchdowns. Two weeks in a row, a game has swung in the snap of a finger because any work the defense has done up to a point is wiped out by a long play for a touchdown. Ashton Dulin’s 55-yard touchdown on a screen pass evaporated the Cowboys hopes of taking a two-score lead to the fourth quarter, and led to another game that felt like it could see overtime by the fourth.
Marist Liufau, DaRon Bland, and P.J. Locke were the defenders with the best chance to get Dulin on the ground, and none of them could.
The Cowboys continued to do some interesting things with Shemar James in this game, as he was involved in the play where Caleb Downs had a sack, and Locke made a big stop on third down early in the game as well, but more consistent fundamentals is still something holding back the Dallas D as a unit. They need to tackle better.
After the Cowboys offense squandered their chance by missing a FG with over three minutes remaining in the game, the Cowboys defense needed to come up with a stand. The Colts got into comfortable field goal range, but Josh Downs’ third-down drop stopped the clock and the defense had held Indy to a 23-20 lead after a field goal. The defense did not give up a touchdown, and they got the ball back to the offense with enough time to go win the game.
The other defensive resolve point in this cardiac fourth quarter was of course Quinnen Williams forcing a fumble on Jonathan Taylor, recovered by James. We said coming into this matchup that just an arbitrary splash plays from Williams wouldn’t be good enough. So Williams stepped up and made multiple big plays, none bigger than this one, and helped the Cowboys overcome penalties on Bland and Dee Winters prior to the takeaway that made a difference in which team had just enough in the tank to win on Sunday.
Kenny Clark even added his name to the splash play list from the defensive interior on the final drive, pressuring Jones into an intentional grounding throw that really wrecked the drive and led to Downs’ game-sealing interception. The highly-paid Cowboys defensive interior made the plays in crunch time.
Play-Calling and What’s Next
The goal for the Cowboys now resets back to exactly what it was after the Eagles game, don’t get too high after a win (against an arguably even worse team this time), and stay focused enough to get a win streak started in front of home fans next Sunday.
To do so, the Cowboys will have to waste no time digesting not only the good things that happened to beat the Colts, but the bad as well. Fourteen penalties for 153 yards is one thing that should be unacceptable even in a win, but the bigger and more long-term concern is the poor play-calling that stamped this game as well.
Even while getting Lamb ten catches on 16 targets for 10 catches and 195 yards, nothing outside of Lamb’s long touchdown felt like it came easy for the offense. The protection plans were not sound to give Prescott time to throw when needed. The early down aggressiveness to not face 16 third-down attempts was not there. Worst of all, the static routes, lack of motion, and number of pass plays where all of Prescott’s options were blanketed from start to finish, with receivers not even running hard on many of these plays, were abundant.
This week will be telling when it comes to how Lamb’s leadership is received at large by this team, as even after his huge day he was more focused on what could have gone better and his costly fumble. This is the type of attitude the entire Cowboys team needs to take into the 49ers matchup, as significant improvements from how they played, mainly on offense, will be needed to pull that upset. Brian Schottenheimer’s responsibility for how the offense looks will come up as well, but his postgame locker room approach was quite different in mood than Lamb’s.
