Cary Blanchard and Jim Harbaugh apparently didn’t get the word that the crippled Indianapolis Colts were supposed to lose to the Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys.
Blanchard kicked four field goals, including the game-winner from 43 yards with 51 seconds left, and Harbaugh threw two touchdown passes Sunday as the unbeaten Colts rallied from an 18-point deficit to down the Cowboys, 25-24. The victory wasn’t sealed until Chris Boniol’s 57-yard field- goal attempt at the gun bounced off the crossbar.
“Not too many people gave us a chance because we had so many guys out,” Harbaugh said. “This might be the best win I’ve ever been associated with.”
Blanchard, who once tried and failed to win a kicking job with the Cowboys and is from nearby Fort Worth, said: “I knew it was good all the way. It was exciting to do it in my hometown. I do feel sorry for Boniol. He needed another half-yard.”
The Cowboys (1-2) went ahead, 24-22, with 13:26 left on a 52-yard field goal by Boniol, but his 40-yarder hit the right upright and bounced away with 2:48 to go to keep the Colts (3-0) in the game.
“It’s a bad feeling when you know you can’t hit a kick any better and it just lacked inches of going over the crossbar,” Boniol said of his attempted game-winner. “I felt it was going to go over.”
Harbaugh, who completed 19 of 28 passes for 244 yards, connected with Ken Dilger on a 28-yard pass play and with Zack Crockett on an 18-yarder to position Blanchard for his perfect field-goal try.
“We should have never allowed those passes to be completed,” Cowboy Coach Barry Switzer said. “It’s a tough way to lose. But we’ll be back.”
Harbaugh threw two touchdown passes in the third quarter to rally the Colts to a 22-21 lead. The passes traveled 48 yards to Marcus Pollard and eight yards to Dilger.
The Cowboys dominated the first half, taking a 21-3 lead and leading, 21-9, with the Colts’ only points coming on Blanchard’s field goals of 24, 25, and a career-long 52 yards.
After Blanchard had put the Colts ahead, 3-0, Troy Aikman took Dallas 67 yards in nine plays. The payoff came on fourth and one from the Indianapolis five when Aikman faked to Emmitt Smith and rolled out to find fullback Daryl Johnston standing all alone for the touchdown.
The next two touchdowns came courtesy of the defense.
Tony Tolbert tackled Harbaugh and Deion Sanders picked up the ball, returning it 22 yards for the touchdown.
Roger Harper intercepted a pass by Harbaugh two plays later at the Colts’ 44, and the Cowboys marched to their third touchdown, on Smith’s two-yard run, to make the score, 21-3.
The Colts played without six injured regulars, including running back Marshall Faulk, cornerback Derrick Frazier and defensive end Tony Bennett.
“I said before the season this was going to be a tough year, and it looks like it’s really going to be a challenge now,” Aikman said.