The Cowboys Needed 97 Seconds in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS

With 1:37 left on Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys were losing a game they had outgained by 237 yards. Spencer Shrader's 50-yard field goal had just put Indianapolis up 23–20 at Lucas Oil Stadium, and the familiar script was already writing itself: Dallas dominates the stat sheet, Dallas finds a way to lose anyway. The Cowboys needed 97 seconds to tear it up. They beat the Colts 27–23, and the last of those seconds belonged to a rookie playing against his own brother.

Dak Prescott took over at his own 35 after the touchback and went straight down the right sideline. Ryan Flournoy beat Sauce Gardner for 46 yards on the drive's first snap. Two Colts penalties carried the ball to the 1, where Indianapolis let Javonte Williams walk in with 1:08 left so the offense would get one more chance. Four plays, 65 yards, 29 seconds. The whole comeback fit inside a television timeout.

The chance Indianapolis saved for itself died fast. Daniel Jones took an intentional grounding penalty on first down, threw incomplete on second, and on third-and-22 from his own 14 heaved one deep with Kenny Clark in his face. Caleb Downs came down with it — the first interception of the rookie's career, with 35 seconds left, against the team his older brother Josh catches passes for. Fifteen members of the Downs family sat in the building, per the AP, watching the brothers face each other in the NFL for the first time since their Georgia prep days. Caleb owned the day: a second-quarter sack on a blitz, two pass breakups, and the pick that ended it. Josh finished with three catches for 24 yards and two drops his family will hear about at dinner.

None of this late drama happens without the collapse that preceded it, and Dallas authored that part itself. The Cowboys led 17–7 at halftime and 20–10 late in the third quarter. Then Ashton Dulin took a short screen 55 yards for a touchdown. Then CeeDee Lamb caught a ball on third-and-12, got up untouched, and ran 48 yards into the red zone — where review ruled he had fumbled as his hand hit the ground. Then DaRon Bland's 40-yard pass interference and a roughness flag dragged Indianapolis deep into Dallas territory, saved only when Quinnen Williams ripped the ball from Jonathan Taylor inside the 20 and Shemar James recovered. Shrader tied it from 59 yards, a career long. Brandon Aubrey, kicking behind a snap that skipped off the turf, pulled a 50-yarder wide left. Shrader answered from 50, and the stadium believed.

Lamb's afternoon refuses to sit in one column. His line is the engine of everything Dallas did: 10 catches on 16 targets, 195 yards, a touchdown — the second-highest yardage total of his career, per the Cowboys' own recap, and nearly 40 percent of the team's 508 yards. His 44-yard touchdown 21 seconds before halftime came with nobody near him, the Colts' coverage simply broken. The same player also drew two offensive pass interference calls, lost the fourth-quarter fumble that nearly sank the season, and had a third-quarter touchdown wiped out because he could not get both feet down. With George Pickens inactive, Prescott had one place to go. Lamb gave him 195 yards and a heart attack in the same game.

The rest of the offense held up its end. Prescott finished 21 of 34 for 335 yards and two touchdowns, a 114.2 rating, and the game-winning drive was the 20th of his career, per Cowboys Wire. Williams ran 20 times for 101 yards behind an offensive line missing its left tackle rotation to flags all afternoon. Tyler Goodson, who spent his first four seasons in Indianapolis, came back and ran for a career-best 77.

Dallas built its cushion the plain way. Aubrey opened the scoring from 45 yards. A Prescott strip-sack handed Indianapolis a 19-yard field and Seth McGowan's first career touchdown, but the Cowboys answered with a seven-minute drive that ended on fourth-and-2, Prescott finding Jake Ferguson reaching over Cam Bynum in the back corner of the end zone. Lamb's touchdown just before the half made it 17–7, and the Colts had gained 78 yards.

Indianapolis leaves with harder math. Jones went 20 of 34 for 180 yards against a defense that held Taylor to 46 rushing yards, and the Colts' fifth straight loss drops them to 2–7 with the trade deadline landing Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern — a deadline that now hangs over Jones, Taylor and Josh Downs alike. Dallas is 4–5, second in the NFC East behind the Giants, and it finally won a game while scoring fewer than 30 points. It took 14 penalties for 153 yards, two lost fumbles and a missed kick to make a 237-yard advantage feel like a coin flip. The 49ers come to Arlington next Sunday. The full box score and play-by-play live in the Game Center.