The Indianapolis Colts hung with the Dallas Cowboys for three full quarters Sunday night.
Then it all fell apart, and did so in a hurry at AT&T Stadium.
“I really couldn’t even explain what happened,” Colts wide receiver Parris Campbell told reporters after the Cowboys scored 33 fourth-quarter points en route to a 54-19 victory, per The Athletic. “One second, it was 21-19. The next, it was 50-whatever-19. It was a blur. It was a blur.”
Dallas entered the fourth quarter with a 21-19 advantage after a failed two-point conversion by the Colts on the previous possession.
The Cowboys’ first fourth-quarter touchdown came on the third play of the period when Dak Prescott found Michael Gallup for a three-yard reception. And then it unraveled. The next play from scrimmage, Dallas recovered an Indianapolis fumble for a defensive touchdown, then intercepted Matt Ryan only for the Cowboys offense to score three plays later, then intercepted Ryan again and scored five plays later and, for good measure, turned another Indianapolis fumble into an offensive touchdown three plays after that.
“For it to get out of proportion like that, man, it (freaking) sucks,” Colts center Ryan Kelly told reporters.
Indianapolis pass rusher DeForest Buckner added: “I can’t say I’ve ever been a part of a game like that.”
Not many have. The Cowboys’ 33 points in the 15-minute period set a franchise record. It tied the 1925 Chicago Cardinals for the largest margin in the final frame in league history, per NFL.com.
Colts interim head coach Jeff Saturday called the four straight turnovers a “calamity of errors.”
Well, at least the fourth-quarter explosion, as Prescott referred to it, helped all those NFL bettors who took the Over 44.5.
