Cowboys' Injury Room Fills Up: Caleb Downs in Concussion Protocol, Ferguson and Porter Jr. on Bad Ankles
The 33-30 overtime loss cost Dallas more than a game. By the postgame news conference, the list was three names long — a rookie safety in the protocol, and the team's tight end and its one irreplaceable corner both awaiting ankle evaluations before the trip to Indianapolis.
The Cowboys left AT&T Stadium on Sunday with a 3-5 record and a medical list. Rookie safety Caleb Downs, who was thrown to the ground twice by an Arizona offensive lineman during a fourth-quarter play, left the game, was ruled out for the remainder of it while undergoing a concussion evaluation, and is now in concussion protocol, head coach Brian Schottenheimer told reporters after the 33-30 overtime loss. Downs was seen with his helmet off, walking back to the locker room during the fourth quarter.
He is not the whole list. Fox 4's Sam Gannon relayed the rest of Schottenheimer's update from the same news conference: cornerback Joey Porter Jr. and tight end Jake Ferguson both have ankle injuries, and both will be further evaluated. Porter's ankle is the four-week problem this station documented earlier Sunday — the one that ended his afternoon before halftime with Dallas ahead 14-0. Ferguson's is new to the public list, and it matters differently: he is the middle-of-the-field option Dak Prescott leans on when the outside receivers are taken away, which is precisely the situation Arizona created in the second half.
The week now runs through the training room. Dallas travels to Indianapolis next Sunday to face a 2-6 Colts team that has recently traded away core pieces including guard Quenton Nelson and defensive lineman DeForest Buckner — on paper, the get-right game a wounded 3-5 team needs. Which Cowboys actually board that trip is a question the evaluations this week will answer, starting with a concussion protocol that has no timetable a coach can promise.
