Dallas Cowboys squeak past Los Angeles Chargers for first victory of season
This is why the Dallas Cowboys gave Dak Prescott a four-year, $160 million contract to be their franchise quarterback.
Damn the circumstances.
Injuries, absences, miscues and bad luck.
The game is tied late in the fourth quarter. He has the ball. There is only one acceptable outcome.
Lead the team to victory.
And that’s exactly what Prescott did.
He drove the Cowboys 49 yards in 11 plays to set up a game-winning 56-yard field goal from Greg Zuerlein as time expired, sending team into a frenzy and the crowd of mainly blue-and-white clad Cowboys fans, including NBA star Lebron Jamesat SoFi Stadium into a tizzy.
How ’bout them Cowboys?
After starting the season with two road games, the Cowboys avoided the dreaded 0-2 hole and now have a chance to build on the victory with three straight home games, starting next Monday against the Philadelphia Eagles at AT&T Stadium.
Sunday’s game wasn’t perfect, and the game’s final drive wasn’t necessarily a thing of beauty, but it was effective. Coach Mike McCarthy gushed over the play of his quarterback.
“You see the best of Dak Prescott in those situations,” he said. “I love his poise and demeanor.”
Prescott recorded his 16th career game-winning drive, which is fifth among quarterbacks since he entered the NFL in 2016 and the fourth-most among Cowboys.
“That’s what you do it for: to have the ball in your hands, for the chance to go win it,” said a happy-but-focused Prescott, who got his first win since suffering a fractured ankle last October and missing the final 11 games of the 2020 season. “Obviously, in a situation like that, you trust your team and Greg Zuerlein to put it through. It was great, obviously, believing in him to make it, and he went and did that, and it was just a relief. The first win and the first win of many is usually the hardest, and it was.”
A personnel issue on that final drive forced the team to use a timeout and kick the field goal from further out than they would have liked. But Zuerlein, who missed two field goals and extra point in last week’s 31-29 season opening loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, got it done.
The 56-yarder was the longest game-winning kick with no time left in regulation in franchise history.
“After what Greg went through last week, we definitely still have confidence in him,” McCarthy said. “He hit two big ones today, and he hit the money one at the end.
“I love the bounce back. This one came down to the last play. It was an excellent win for us. It will be a great plane ride him. This definitely one we can build off of.”
Heading into the game, the Cowboys had plenty excuses to have a poor showing against the Chargers. They lost five starters in the 10 days since their last game, including right tackle La’el Collins, defensive ends Randy Gregory and DeMarcus Lawrence, receiver Michael Gallup and safety Donovan Wilson.
And backup tackle Ty Nsekhe, who was going to start in place of Collins, didn’t make the trip after spending Thursday night in the hospital with a heat-related illness.
But there is “no woe is me” and “here we go again” in these Cowboys, one year after injuries, COVID and bad luck played a role in their disappointing 6-10 finish.
“There was never a blink in the belief,” McCarthy said. “We showed that in how we started the game, and more importantly in how we finished it.”
That mindset was evident from the Cowboys’ opening drive of the game, when they marched 78 yards on 15 plays to take a 7-0 lead on a four-yard run by running back Tony Pollard.
But after a second first-quarter touchdown, a run by Ezekiel Elliott, the special teams committed an egregious roughing the punter penalty that gave the Chargers new life at the end of the first half.
However, a Chargers’ missed field-goal attempt gave the Cowboys the ball back with 3 seconds left and the Cowboys nearly pulled off a miracle play just before the half. Receiver CeeDee Lamb took a short pass from Prescott, broke a tackle and raced 34 yards. He pitched to a trailing Elliott who got all the way to the 3-yard line before being pushed out of bounds with no time left on the clock.
The Cowboys led 14-11 at halftime thanks to a balanced attack. One week after handing the ball off just 14 times against the Buccaneers, the Cowboys had 18 carries for 96 yards in the first half versus the Chargers.
Prescott offset the running game with 13 completions on 16 attempts for 177 yards. The only egregious mistakes were a Prescott interception that led to a Chargers’ field goal and a hold on center Tyler Biadiasz that killed a potential scoring drive.
The Cowboys proved to be their own worst enemy for much of the game with untimely penalties, poor play calls and assignment gaffes but they refused to wilt.
After a personal foul penalty gave the Chargers a first down at the 13 with a chance to break a 14-14 tie and take the lead for the first time in the final seconds of the third quarter.
Safety Damontae Kazee turned the Chargers back with an interception in the end zone at :05 mark.
The Cowboys marched 64 yards on 10 plays to take a 17-14 lead on a 34-yard field goal by Zuerlein.
The Cowboys were lucky to get the field goal as Prescott fumbled on a sack by edge rusher Kyler Fackrell. Guard Zack Martin jumped on the ball to prevent the turnover.
The Chargers moved down the field and appeared to take the lead on a 2-yard touchdown pass to Jared Cook, but they were flagged for an illegal shift.
Cowboys rookie Micah Parsons, who was playing defensive end in place of Lawrence, picked a great time to have the first sack of his career, turning a 2nd-and-goal at the 7 into a 3rd-and-25.
The Chargers had to settle for a game-tying field goal with 3:58 left, but it proved to be too much time for Prescott and Zuerlein.
Prescott led a methodical time-consuming drive that was sparked by a 12-yard pass to receiver Amari Cooper to give the Cowboys a first down at the Chargers’ 45-yard line with :36. A short pass to Cedrick Wilson was followed by 3-yard run by Pollard.
The Cowboys wanted to run another play on 3rd-and-3 from the 38. But a personnel issue and a problem with the clock forced them to call a time out with :04, setting the stage for the Zuerlein.
“He’s got complete control of the offense and the situations,” guard Zack Martin said of Prescott. “When you have someone out there calm,cool and collected, it keeps everyone like that. Coop, coming up with the big catch there and Greg sealing the deal. It was just a great team win.”
Prescott finished the game with 237 yards passing on 23-of-27 attempts. Pollard rushed 13 times for 109 yards and Elliott has 16 carries for 71 yards.
“We just wanted to go with who’s hot,” said Pollard of the tandem with Elliott. “We both feed off each other. If he was hot, we would have went that way. It just turned out this way. We’re good. As long as we’re winning, everything is fine.”
Credit the ball control offense and timely plays from a maligned defense for keeping the Cowboys in it, despite giving up 408 yards of offense to the Chargers, including 338 yards passing a touchdown to quarterback Justin Herbert.
In addition to the big sack from Parsons, the defense got interceptions got crucial interceptions from cornerback Trevon Diggs and Kazee.
The Cowboys broke a streak of 34 straight games of only winning when they topped 30 points. It marked the first time to do so since a 27-20 victory over Tampa Bay on Dec. 23, 2018.
“I’m excited about what’s in front of us,” McCarthy said. “This definitely pays it forward.”
This story was originally published September 19, 2021 at 6:20 PM.
