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Home International Matchups that cost Colts in wild loss to Cowboys, including Sauce Gardner...

Matchups that cost Colts in wild loss to Cowboys, including Sauce Gardner and Jonathan Taylor

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INDIANAPOLIS — The Colts nearly pulled off an upset on Sunday.

Embattled and playing under the fires of trade speculation, Indianapolis fought its way back to take a 3-point lead late in the game … only to have the defense give it back up, allowing a touchdown and a 27-23 Cowboys win.

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Indianapolis (2-7) now turns its eyes to Tuesday’s trade deadline, and how many players might be playing elsewhere next season.

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See the fans, game action as Colts take on Cowboys in NFL Week 9

Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen shakes hands with Indianapolis Colts linebacker Jaylon Carlies (57) on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, ahead of the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

(Grace Hollars/IndyStar)

Colts cornerback Sauce Gardner vs. Cowboys wide receiver Ryan Flournoy

Sauce Gardner is supposed to be the team’s best cornerback, a shutdown player the Colts traded two first-round picks and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell to get before the deadline last season.

He hasn’t been worth the price.

And he was responsible for the play that ended up costing the Colts the game on Sunday. Gardner was put in 1-on-1 coverage against Ryan Flournoy, a sixth-round pick in 2024 who is playing a critical role only because Dallas did not have George Pickens.

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Gardner had already escaped a bad highlight earlier in the game, failing to get his head around to look at the ball on a throw to CeeDee Lamb that only ended up being incomplete because Lamb didn’t get both feet inbounds.

The veteran cornerback’s ball skills have always been questioned, and he failed to find the ball on the most important throw of the game.

After the Colts took a late 23-20 lead on a Spencer Shrader field goal, Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott went deep in 1-on-1 coverage to Flournoy.

Gardner appeared to be in phase.

But he never got his head around, allowing Flournoy to haul in a 46-yard pass that gave Dallas a chance to play for the game-winning touchdown instead of a game-tying field goal.

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Gardner was supposed to be the “prize” of the 2025 trade deadline.

Days before the 2026 deadline, Gardner showed why he wasn’t worth the price the Colts paid to get him.

Colts secondary vs. Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb

Lamb is the best Dallas player, the only high-powered weapon at Dak Prescott’s disposal on a day when George Pickens was not available.

Indianapolis didn’t do a great job of taking away Lamb on Sunday.

But the Pro Bowl-caliber wide receiver did a decent job of limiting his own impact.

Lamb caught 10 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown, bouncing back from a slow start to seemingly break the game open on an inexplicable Indianapolis coverage bust near the end of the first half.

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Veteran cornerback Charvarius Ward appeared to pass Lamb off to strong safety Hunter Wohler, who’s not an excellent coverage option, and a wide-open Lamb caught a 48-yard pass for a score.

He could have turned in an even bigger day, but Lamb was flagged twice for offensive pass interference for pushing off of Colts defenders.

Then he was involved in one of the weirdest plays of the NFL season so far. Under pressure on third-and-long, Prescott flung a wounded duck in the direction of Lamb on the sideline, and the receiver made a remarkable diving catch, grabbing the ball just before it hit the turf.

Indianapolis cornerback Kenneth Harris didn’t touch Lamb down, and the alert Cowboys receiver got up and took off running for a 48-yard gain.

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But Lamb wasn’t able to hold onto the ball at the end of the run and he fumbled the ball away to Harris, erasing the play on a weird day for the Dallas wide receiver.

Colts RB Jonathan Taylor vs. Cowboys defensive front

Taylor, the subject of so many trade rumors for weeks, seemed to have an excellent matchup on Sunday.

Dallas entered Sunday’s game with the NFL’s worst rush defense, a terrible unit that ranked dead-last in the league in yards and second-to-last in yards per carry.

The Cowboys looked like easy pickings.

Indianapolis struggled to run the ball instead. Perhaps still working through the loss of Quenton Nelson, the Colts had trouble controlling the line of scrimmage, and Taylor wasn’t able to find much running room. Taylor ran the ball 13 times for just 46 yards, failing to break any runs longer than seven yards.

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Taylor also made the game’s biggest mistake.

Driving with a chance to take the lead, Taylor got swallowed by Quinnen Williams at the line of scrimmage and lost the ball, fumbling to take away a scoring opportunity.

Backup running back Seth McGowan had the two biggest running plays of the game, scoring a touchdown and ripping off a 36-yard gain later in the game.

Cowboys vs. referees

An Indianapolis team that has struggled all season was always going to need some help against a Cowboys team that remains full of star power.

Dallas gave it to the Colts with terrible discipline.

The Cowboys were penalized 14 times for a whopping 153 yards, routinely putting themselves behind the sticks, wiping plays off the board and giving Indianapolis a chance to stay in the game despite another ugly performance from the offense.

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For the most part, none of the calls — other than the two Lamb penalties, which seemed minor — were hard to understand. Dallas simply shot itself in the foot, repeatedly, allowing the Colts to hang around as long as possible.

Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Coltsall season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Matchups that cost Colts in wild loss to Cowboys, including Sauce Gardner and Jonathan Taylor

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com

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