The injuries kept piling up for the Cowboys after kickoff. Jake Ferguson, already the main question in a thin tight end room, hurt his knee during the game. Jonathan Mingo, the No. 3 receiver for the day, went questionable to return with an ankle injury. Linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku did too, with Joey Porter Jr. and DeMarvion Overshown already inactive. Indianapolis had its own problems. Tackle Jalen Travis (knee) and linebacker Jaylon Carlies (neck) were both ruled out for the rest of the game, on a line that started the day without Charlie Heck.
Then the 2nd half started and Dallas went back to its old habits. The Colts scored 10 points in the 3rd quarter to Dallas's 3 and cut the gap to 20-17. In the 4th, Indianapolis put up the 6 points that moved it in front. The Yahoo Sports writeup was blunt about it: Dallas blew the lead with several 2nd-half mistakes and needed a late rally to avoid what would have been the worst loss of its season.
The rally was a 7-point 4th quarter, and that was enough. The ending came down to the Downs brothers. Caleb Downs, the Dallas safety the preview flagged as a concussion question after the Arizona game, intercepted Daniel Jones to seal it. On the other sideline was his brother Josh, the Colts receiver who asked for a trade this season. Jones came into the week as trade bait after an awful day in Jacksonville. He got the Colts back into this one and then threw the interception that ended it.
The Colts deserve some credit here. Their scoring had gone 22, 20, 10, 7 over the last 4 weeks, and they had just traded their best interior lineman on each side of the ball, yet they put up 23 and led late. That still makes 5 straight losses. For Dallas, it's a win at 4-5 that looks a lot like the 33-30 overtime loss to Arizona, except this time the defense made the last play.
The questions on the Cowboys' side now are medical. Ferguson's knee, Mingo's ankle and Ezeiruaku's ankle are all open, and so is Pickens' hamstring. Dallas was down to practice-squad call-ups at tight end before Ferguson got hurt. Indianapolis has a trade market to sort out, with Jonathan Taylor drawing offers and Jones on the phone lines too. Losing a 2nd-half lead to Dallas won't calm the talk about Shane Steichen's job.
