The Cowboys are heading to Indianapolis in a strange place: not good enough to feel safe, not bad enough to have fully pulled the plug. Dallas is 3-5 after a 33-30 overtime loss to the Cardinals, and Brian Schottenheimer’s team keeps living the same frustrating script - win one, lose one, then repeat the cycle with the losing streaks doing more damage than any momentum ever does.
The Colts are in even rougher shape at 2-6, coming off another loss at the Jaguars and now riding a four-game skid. Indianapolis has already treated this 2026 season like a lost cause, dealing away players such as Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner for future assets while more changes are expected on both the personnel and coaching fronts.
Dallas, by contrast, has not waved the white flag. The Cowboys have even left the door cracked open to buying at the trade deadline, helped along by how soft the NFC East has been.
That’s part of what makes Sunday feel so odd. The Cowboys still have votes of confidence around the coaching staff, which seems tied both to the division being there for the taking and to the lack of an obvious in-season replacement if Schottenheimer were moved out, along with Klayton Adams or Christian Parker. But confidence and competence are not the same thing, and the Cowboys have spent most of the year trying to prove that the hard way.
If Dallas wants to keep selling any hope at all, this is the kind of game it has to take care of. The Cardinals loss already exposed how fragile that hope is, but Arizona at least showed up ready to compete.
Indianapolis has already accepted something much darker. With another bad AFC South opponent, the Titans, still on the schedule before Thanksgiving, the Cowboys need to get something moving now.
The last time these teams met was Week 13 of 2022, when Mike McCarthy’s Cowboys rolled the Colts 54-19 in Dallas. That win was part of a four-game surge, all of it a response to an overtime loss at Green Bay. Dallas also beat the Vikings 40-3 during that stretch.
The most recent trip to Indianapolis, though, is the one that still lingers. In 2018, the Cowboys were 3-5, just like they are now, and they were trying to steady themselves after missing the playoffs the year before.
Jason Garrett was under pressure, and Scott Linehan was taking most of the heat on offense. That setup feels familiar now, with Schottenheimer carrying both the head-coaching and play-calling load.
Dallas actually won five straight after that 3-5 start in 2018 and got to 8-5 by Week 15. Then came the Colts game, and the offense disappeared in a 23-0 shutout - the Cowboys’ first since 2003.
They reached Colts territory on the opening drive and had a field goal blocked. On the next possession, they got to the red zone and came away empty on fourth down.
After that came two punts, two more failed fourth-down tries, and an interception to finish it off. Blake Jarwin’s 18-yard catch was the longest play Dallas had all day.
The man coordinating that Colts defense was Matt Eberflus, who had spent seven seasons as the Cowboys linebackers coach and also handled passing game coordinator duties in 2016 and 2017. He knew the offense well enough to have every answer ready, and he made Linehan’s unit look helpless for four quarters.
Eberflus later turned that Colts job into his first head-coaching opportunity with the Bears, and his path eventually looped back to Dallas as defensive coordinator working with Schottenheimer last year. He is now with the San Francisco 49ers, who are tied with the Vikings and Bills for the best record in the NFL. If the Cowboys beat the Colts this week, their next shot at a winning streak would come against Eberflus and the 49ers at home.
Even then, the bigger picture would still be messy. A win in Indianapolis would help, but it would not settle whether this team is actually playoff-worthy.
A loss would only deepen the unease. Either way, this is an awkward spot for Dallas, and the emptiness around the game feels like the product of coaching malpractice that may have started the last time the Cowboys were in Indianapolis - or even before that.
It also says something that both teams may be looking ahead to the offseason more than the present. The Combine will be back at Lucas Oil Stadium, and both organizations could be shopping for answers there.
The Colts already seem positioned to move ahead of the Cowboys in any coaching search if they choose to go that route. Dallas, meanwhile, still has Jerry Jones trying to convince everyone that the bigger realization has not quite arrived yet.
In Other News...
Cowboys Frustration With Brian Schottenheimer Is Getting Harder To Ignore
The Cowboys left Sunday with 30 points on the board and still had plenty to sort through after a loss to the Cardinals, because the number alone did not tell the story of how the offense functioned. CeeDee Lamb made it clear afterward that execution was not where it needed to be, and the fact that three of those points came on field goals only sharpened the frustration around an attack that never quite played with the urgency Dallas needed.
Dak Prescott also pointed to a lack of aggression in the late-game approach, a comment that lands squarely in the middle of the growing scrutiny around Brian Schottenheimer. The criticism is not just about one conservative sequence or one play call, but about a broader pattern of cautious decision-making and design choices at key moments, the kind of thing that tends to linger when a team keeps coming up short in games it feels it should have controlled. [Read more 🡒]
Von Miller Just Warned Cowboys Fans About This Colts Trap Game
The Cowboys are trying to steady themselves at 3-5 after the loss to Arizona, and the timing of their next game makes the margin for error feel even thinner. Indianapolis comes in at 2-6, but the record alone does not tell the whole story, especially with the Colts in the middle of roster changes and a roster that could look different soon.
Von Miller called the Colts a scary opponent for that reason, noting how players on a team in that kind of spot can be motivated to put good tape out there before any trades shake things up. For Dallas, that makes this less like a straightforward matchup against a struggling team and more like the kind of trap game that can turn into a problem if the Cowboys are not ready from the start. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Still Waiting On Two Crucial Calls Before Colts Game
The Cowboys are heading into Week 9 with two important names still in question, and both could matter plenty against the Colts. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer said Joey Porter Jr. and George Pickens will be limited, while stopping short of confirming either one for Sunday, leaving Dallas to monitor two players who have become central to the conversation this week.
Pickens situation carries extra weight because of the injury concern and the constant buzz around his future, while Porters availability also looms large for a defense trying to keep pace. Dallas still has time to sort out the final call, but until those decisions come in, the matchup in Indianapolis is already carrying a little more uncertainty than the Cowboys would prefer. [Read more 🡒]