A football field can get awfully small when the other team starts handing out yards. The Cowboys and Colts both learned that Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium. Dallas won 27-23, and on three of the afternoon’s most consequential drives the quickest way forward was a penalty against the defense.
The pattern appeared on Dallas’ first and last touchdown drives, then returned when Indianapolis was trying to seize control in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys finished with 508 yards, but the scoreboard was decided by a few stretches in which flags did more traveling than the offenses.
Dallas needed its first touchdown drive because Indianapolis had just scored from a short field. Caden Curry took the ball after Dak Prescott lost it on a sack, and the Colts began their possession at the Dallas 19. The Cowboys had 65 yards to go when they got it back, a longer trip than the number suggests once they started wiping out gains with penalties.
Two holding calls erased gains by Javonte Williams. An ineligible-downfield penalty removed a 14-yard completion to Ryan Flournoy. Dallas was repeatedly being asked to start over, or nearly so, just when it appeared to be moving toward the red zone. A drive that eventually crossed 65 yards had to earn portions of that distance more than once.
Then Indianapolis supplied the shortcut. After Prescott scrambled to the Indianapolis 33, the Colts’ C.J. Allen was called for unnecessary roughness.
The penalty moved Dallas to the Indianapolis 18, restoring the field position that its own flags had taken away. Dallas still had to finish, and Jake Ferguson did it by catching a 10-yard touchdown pass on fourth down. But the touchdown was built as much around changing field position as around the completed passes.
The Colts got their turn after CeeDee Lamb’s fourth-quarter fumble. Dallas cornerback DaRon Bland drew a 40-yard interference penalty on one incompletion. Taylor ran for two before another incomplete pass brought a 15-yard unnecessary-roughness flag. Neither pass was completed, and the Colts were already well inside Dallas territory.
The two penalties moved Indianapolis deep into Dallas territory without a completed pass. The Colts had not solved the defense with a chain of throws or a sustained rushing attack; they had been handed the field that a failed attempt normally leaves behind. Indianapolis eventually reached the Dallas 20 before Quinnen Williams forced Jonathan Taylor’s fumble.
Indianapolis had gone far enough to threaten without requiring Jones to complete either of those two throws.
The Cowboys punted after the recovery. Indianapolis then went 42 yards and tied the game at 20 on Spencer Shrader’s 59-yard field goal. A 50-yarder later put the Colts ahead. Their offense was rarely in a position to finish those drives with a touchdown, but it didn’t need to get much closer for Shrader to matter.
That kicking exchange sharpened the cost of every lost yard. Shrader converted all three attempts, including two from at least 50 yards. Aubrey made from 45 and 28 but missed his 50-yard attempt.
