The Dallas Cowboys earned their fourth win of the season with a 20-17 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium on Monday night.
On a night where the defenses were slightly more in sync than the offenses, Dallas made more plays when it mattered late in the game as the Chargers faltered.
“I think this is part of the definition of a complementary football team,” head coach Mike McCarthy told the media postgame. “The offense picks up the defense, [and] the defense picks up for the offense and the special teams and all the way around. There’s plays that need to be made, especially down the stretch … and I thought our men did a really good job there.”
Los Angeles took advantage of a short field on its first possession, driving 42 yards for a touchdown as quarterback Justin Herbert connected with wide receiver Keenan Allen for a one-yard score. Dallas responded with a touchdown drive to tie the game on an impressive 18-yard run on 4th-and-1 by quarterback Dak Prescott.
Neither team could manage much more the rest of the first half, and Dallas went into the locker room with a 10-7 lead after kicking a field goal in the final seconds.
The Chargers took their first possession of the second half all the way down to Dallas’ seven-yard line, but the Dallas defense made the first of its many critical second-half stops by forcing an incomplete pass on fourth down. The Chargers tied the game with a field goal on the following possession, but Dallas responded again.
A 60-yard catch and run by running back Tony Pollard set up Dallas in the red zone, and Prescott squeezed a pass by a defender to Brandin Cooks for a score.
Leading 17-10, the Cowboys stopped the Los Angeles offense once again and were poised to get the ball back, but chaos would ensue on the punt. A Dallas blocker was forced into returner KaVontae Turpin, and the ball bounced away. No one had touched the ball, so it was just a typical punt, but Cowboys receiver Jalen Tolbert seemed to think it hit Turpin and unsuccessfully attempted to recover the “fumble.”
While the play had not been a fumble up to that point, and the ball would have been considered “dead,” it became “live” when Tolbert touched it, and the Chargers were given possession after challenging the play. They tied the game four plays later as Herbert found a wide-open Gerald Everett for a one-yard touchdown on 4th-and-goal.
Brandon Aubrey converted his second field goal of the game to give Dallas a three-point lead with 2:19 remaining, but the defense needed to make a final stand.
After the first couple of plays went in the Chargers’ favor, Micah Parsons came up with a crucial sack to force a 3rd-and-long. On the third-down play, Herbert was pressured and stepped up in the pocket to make it throw, which was intercepted by Stephon Gilmore to end the game.
“That’s how we feel we’re built for these moments [with] our pass rush, and big-time players make big plays,” McCarthy said. “That’s an important part of these type[s] of games. Hopefully, we’re in that position every week where our pass rush is put up to the forefront of the challenge.”
Prescott finished with 272 passing yards and two touchdowns (one passing and one rushing), while CeeDee Lamb had 117 receiving yards.
Herbert threw for 227 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception to lead the Chargers.
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WHAT TO KNOW
— The Dallas Cowboys rebounded from a blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers with a road win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
— Wide receiver Brandin Cooks caught his first touchdown pass since signing with Dallas in the offseason.
— The Cowboys enter their bye week at 4-2, fifth in the NFC and one game behind the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East.
— Before the game, Dallas placed linebacker Leighton Vander Esch and defensive back C.J. Goodwin on injured reserve and activated defensive back Nahshon Wright.
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BY THE NUMBERS
— The Cowboys entered the game with a 36.84% touchdown rate in the red zone and scored on 50% (2-4) of their red zone drives on Monday.
— Aubrey has now made 16 consecutive field goal attempts to begin his NFL career.
— After putting up just 197 yards of offense last week, the Cowboys had 342 yards on Monday.
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WHO SAID
— McCarthy on the offense: “We did enough to win. There’s some things we did very well. Every game’s different. This was a whole different challenge today, but I thought we played well enough to win.”
— Prescott on winning a close game: “We haven’t had close games, but this is what the NFL is about. We’ve got to get used to this. We’ve got to stay confident in this and understand that in these close games — one-score, field goal games, touchdown games — we’ve got to believe in ourselves finishing it on our terms with the ball in our hands.”
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NEXT UP
— The Cowboys (4-2) have a bye week and return to the field when they host the Los Angeles Rams at AT&T Stadium on October 29.
