The Dallas Cowboys visit the Indianapolis Colts for the first time since 2018 this Sunday, and have played their way into a corner where this is an unfortunate bad versus bad game. Brian Schottenheimer’s Cowboys are yet again continuing their pattern of mostly alternating wins and losses, and only having losing streaks compared to winning streaks, into November. They go to Indy with a 3-5 record, off a 33-30 overtime loss at home to the Cardinals. The Colts are off yet another loss at the Jaguars,
but it marked their fourth straight to sit at 2-6 right now.
The Colts have already accepted this 2026 campaign as a lost season, trading away players like Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner for future assets, with more personnel and coaching changes expected for a season that’s failed to match even mild-ish expectations. The Cowboys have done no such thing, teasing the possibility of actually being buyers in the trade market still with the awfulness of the NFC East adding fuel to this fire.
There’s also been nothing but votes of confidence in the coaching staff, which again may be a two-fold result of still having a “winnable” division, as well as not having an obvious answer to who would replace Schottenheimer in-season if a change was made, nor Klayton Adams or Christian Parker.
If the Cowboys want to continue selling any semblance of hope for this season, beating a team that’s already punted on that hope is obviously a must. Yes, we mostly said the same about the Cardinals game that was one of the worst collapses in recent memory, but at bare minimum that wasn’t an opponent that has given up. Getting in the win column in their third to last game before Thanksgiving, with another one of these also coming against a bad AFC South opponent the Titans, is the best the Cowboys can do this Sunday.
Their absolute most recent game against the Colts came in Week 13 of 2022. The Cowboys had a second-year head coach just like they do now, but it was Mike McCarthy who beat the Colts 54-19 in Dallas. It was the third straight win of four in a row, all four in response to an overtime loss at the Packers. The Cowboys also beat the Vikings 40-3 in this stretch.
The most recent away game in the series for Dallas came in 2018. The Cowboys were coming off of missing the playoffs in 2017 after Dak Prescott’s amazing rookie campaign of 2016, and patience was wearing thin for head man Jason Garrett, but more so offensive coordinator Scott Linehan. Presently, the Cowboys have these responsibilities both on Schotty’s shoulders as he is the play-calling head coach. These 2018 Cowboys were in the same position, 3-5, as the 2026 team.
They won five straight to reach 8-5 by Week 15, but then were shutout for the first time since 2003 in a 23-0 loss at the Colts. The Cowboys got into Colts territory on the opening drive of the game but had a field goal blocked, got it into the red zone the next possession but turned it over on downs, then proceeded to punt twice, turn it over on downs two more times, and end the game with an interception. Blake Jarwin had the longest catch of the game for Dallas for 18 yards.
The Colts defensive coordinator responsible for keeping the Cowboys off the scoreboard in this game? None other than Matt Eberflus, who had spent the last seven seasons as the Cowboys linebackers coach, and the 2016-17 seasons also taking on passing game coordinator duties.
Cowboys fans worst nightmares about the predictability of Linehan’s offense were realized with the harshest reality check possible, a coach that worked in the same building as Linehan the year before having all of the answers to the test and shoving the Cowboys offense in a locker for four quarters.
It is pretty wild to also consider the fact Eberflus parlayed this defensive coordinator job with the Colts into his first head coaching job with the Bears, and that was his final stop before returning to Dallas as DC to work with Schottenheimer last year.
Eberflus is also now with the San Francisco 49ers, who are tied with the Vikings and Bills for having the best record in the NFL. If the Cowboys get this weekend’s win against the Colts, that elusive winning streak will be in play only by beating Eberflus and the 49ers back at home the following week.
Today’s Cowboys almost assuredly don’t have the same luxury of being able to lose this game to the Colts and still make the playoffs as a 3-5 team that would fall to 3-6, but whether or not they’re even playoff worthy will have to remain a discussion even with a blowout win.
It is an awkward spot to be in, and the hollowness of this game feels like a direct result of coaching malpractice – the seeds of which were planted as early as the last time the Cowboys were in Indianapolis, or possibly even earlier.
It may not be far fetched at all to say both of these organizations coming into week nine have more to look forward to when they’ll be in Lucas Oil Stadium for the Combine this offseason, searching for the prospects that can turn fortunes around. The Colts have already positioned themselves to be ahead of the Cowboys (not a hard thing to do) in the offseason coaching search if they choose to do so though, as the realization of how much that matters has yet to hit Jerry Jones.
