ARLINGTON, TX – The Dallas Cowboys (9-3) defeat the Indianapolis Colts (4-8-1) in a dominant 40-19 victory. The defense was stellar and the offense capitalized and converted on the turnovers Dallas’s defense created.
Dallas started with the ball and it was a quick three and out. QB Dak Prescott was close to throwing an interception on third down but it was tipped off by the Colts defense.
Indianapolis converted on their series, getting three on the board and taking a 3-0 lead with 10 minutes left in the first quarter. Dallas answered with a 20-yard touchdown from Dak Prescott to CeeDee Lamb. Lamb broke an arm tackle after realizing he never touched the ground and ran it in for a touchdown giving Dallas a 7-3 lead.
The Cowboys lead was short lived as CB Trevon Diggs got caught looking and was iced by a touchdown pass from QB Matt Ryan to WR Ashton Dullin to give the Colts a 10-7 lead.
Dallas’s offense didn’t slow down after that and with the help of a 22-yard catch and run for Lamb, RB Tony Pollard finished it off with a 17-yard run for a Cowboys touchdown. Giving Dallas a 14-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Both defenses decided to show up in the second quarter and it became sack city for Dallas. Earlier in the week I talked about the difficulty the Colts offensive line was going to have with Dallas pash rush having three of the top five rushers on their defense. The first two sacks didn’t even come from the top three ranked rushers (Parsons, Armstrong, and Fowler) but from Donovan Wilson and Anthony Barr. That put the Cowboys at 47 sacks on the season, second most through the first 11 games of a season in franchise history. With Barrs sack he was the 13th Dallas player to record a sack this season.
The defense kept it rolling with an interception from Malik Hooker giving Dallas great field position with a minute left in the first half. The Cowboys got the ball on the 28 yardline and the interception converted into a 13-yard touchdown catch from Dak Prescott to Michael Gallup.
The Cowboys went into the locker room up 21-13.
The third quarter was quiet offensively for both teams until four minutes left when Ryan threw a 15-yard touchdown to Alec Peirce giving the Colts a chance to tie the game with a two-point conversion. Indianapolis went for it but they were not successful. Dallas kept the lead 21-19 to end the third quarter.
The Cowboys opened up the fourth quarter with a second Michael Gallup touchdown of the night, giving them a 28-19 lead with just shy of 14 minutes left on the clock.
Dallas continued to rally on both ends of the ball playing complimentary football. DaRon Bland had an interception on defense and the offense converted that into Tony Pollard’s second touchdown of the evening.
With nine minutes left in the fourth quarter Dallas had an extensive 40-19 lead over the Colts and the lead continued to grow. Dallas scored 33 points in the fourth quarter. Dak Prescott said after the game, “It was a fourth quarter explosion.”
We spoke with Malik Hooker after the game and he said that the defense is just getting started and there is no ceiling cap to what the Cowboys defense can do.
Dallas will be back in AT&T Stadium next Sunday to take on the Houston Texans. Kick off is at noon.
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