What to watch in Monday’s must-win game for the Dallas Cowboys vs. Los Angeles Chargers
The Dallas Cowboys (3-2) have officially moved on to Monday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers (2-2).
But they will not soon forget last week’s 42-10 humbling loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Did the extra day help the Cowboys heal mentally and physically?
They know the Chargers are a good team and they can’t let the 49ers loss beat them twice.
The Cowboys have a good history of bouncing back, considering they are 9-1 following a loss since 2021.
“Just like anything there’s patterns to everything we do,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “There’s patterns in how you prepare, there’s two realms you function in. It’s the emotional, mental and the physical. I think physically the way this week has laid up its served us well, the extra day is always a benefit. When you’re six weeks into a season, so everybody is dinged up a little bit, that’s been a benefit. Obviously the emotional part of it we’ve had to deal with more coming out of the result of the past game. Just got a little more work to do there.”
Said quarterback Dak Prescott: “I guess you could say early in the week in the sense of you’re pissed, right? We went out there, put a performance out there like that, myself, something I’m not proud of, something as I said before that you didn’t see coming. Didn’t see coming. The last thing that we can do is allow that really linger into the week, especially having the extra day. You don’t have time in this league to have a hangover. Even after a game like that, as disappointing as it is. It’s one game, thankfully. It’s one game, and we’ve got to move forward and we get a chance to go out here Monday night and put something else on tape and move forward.”
Prescott said the team’s biggest frustration about the performance against 49ers was not converting on third downs, something they have done well all season, and handling the physicality on the outside.
That’s something they plan to improve against a Chargers defense that ranks last in the NFL against the pass.
“I don’t like what we did Sunday by any means but as I said that was us not converting on third downs allowing us to extend drives,” Prescott said. “Three and out and turnover, turnover, turnover, yeah, you’re going to get blown out like that in this league. That’s why it was as humbling as it was. We didn’t see that. We didn’t answer the response to their physicality.
“But what we’ve put together, everything that we worked on back in the spring I’d be crazy to lose confidence in that understanding all the work that we put into this. Shit’s hard and it got hard Sunday. The last thing we’re going to do is give up and quit or say hell let’s start from scratch and start over. Absolutely not.”
What to Watch in Monday’s game:
Dak Prescott and a frustrated Ceedee Lamb getting on the same page
With 27 catches for 358 yards and one touchdown, Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb is frustrated with the offense and his touches.
Lamb was visibly upset during the 42-10 loss to the 49ers when he had four catches for 49 yards. He was seen standing away from the team during the game.
Prescott made a point to talk to Lamb on Monday to get an understanding of what was wrong and try to get on the same page.
“He’s like, ‘if you have a problem with anything, just come up to me and we’ll talk about it. I don’t care how it necessarily looks in the media’,” Lamb said. “But the media is going to do what the media does anyway. If I stand by myself, it’s a problem. If I go talk to him and I flair my hands a little bit, it’s a problem. Right? At the end of the day, it’s just getting down to the nitty gritty, getting everything understood and being on the same page. Me and Dak, we did that, first day back, so we could have all week, fresh slate to get after it.”
Prescott said he understands Lambs frustrations, but there is simply a better way to handle it.
“I mean, a frustrated player, person that feels like we all could’ve done better and feels like he can change the game, I understand it. I really do,” Prescott said. “So it’s in the sense of just communicating with him. … CeeDee is a guy that I’ll never lose confidence in and trust who he is and understand why he’s frustrated. But at the end of the day, he’s a leader.
“It’s about him leading other guys and picking other guys up and him just trying to make sure we’re all pushing our best. That’s where the frustration, we have to remove that. And he will. He’s a young player that’s growing by the day and he’ll only get better. He’ll be better because of that. Frustrating times.”
Lamb said he is a passionate player and wants to win, but he often likes to be by himself to clear his head. He said people are wrong to judge his body language. But he acknowledges there is a better way to handle things.
“I’ve had to reflect, self-reflect, and I didn’t go the best route to get my end result,” Lamb said. “At the end of the day, I have a job to do and I want to contribute to this team. I do everything in my power week in and week out to do that. Going forward, there is a better way to go about it, make a lighter situation. It was cool.”
Mike McCarthy more focused on Chargers coming off bye than on Kellen Moore
A lot has been made of battle between Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy and Chargers offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and deservedly so.
Moore was the Cowboys offensive coordinator under McCarthy from 2020-22 until he was fired following the season-ending loss to the 49ers last January.
McCarthy took over play calling and installed some West Coast principles to the offense while declaring that he is more interested in winning than having the league’s top-ranked offense.
Moore was hired by the Chargers as their offensive coordinator and brings in the league’s fifth-ranked attack to the matchup. McCarthy’s Cowboys are rank 17th in offense and have scored just nine touchdowns.
McCarthy said he is more focused on getting offense right against a well-rested Chargers team coming off a bye than a battle with Moore.
“There’s really no bells and whistles for this one,” McCarthy said. “This is Game 6. My focus, and it’s really the way I view schedules, I think a lot of NFL scheduling, in my opinion, it’s not as much who you play, it’s when you play them. One of the things I’ve always checked, how many teams come out of their bye playing you. I’m more focused on that. I know that’s all part of the game. He obviously has an excellent opportunity that he’s doing a very nice job with.”
McCarthy and Moore haven’t spoke in months. But McCarthy has no regrets about their three years together.
“I thought it was productive,” McCarthy said. “We grew. 2020 I think was a hard year for everybody. If you look at the pure football part of it, I think we were still working through how we wanted the offense to look. I thought he did a really nice job shifting gears and featuring the runners and doing some of the things that needed to be done.”
“On a personal level, he’s as fine of a young man as I’ve worked with.”
Dak Prescott appreciated of Kellen Moore’s guidance
Precott will head into Monday’s game with fond memories of Moore as well as former quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier, who also joined the Chargers after being let go by McCarthy.
Moore was the backup quarteback with the Cowboys when Prescott was drafted in 2016. It was an injury to Moore that allowed Prescott to snag the starting role when Tony Romo got hurt.
The two became fast friends as teammates before Moore joined the staff as quarterbacks coach and then as Prescott’s offensive coordinator for five seasons.
Prescott is very appreciative to what Moore meant to his career.
“Coming into this game as a young rookie, drafted in the fourth round and was really just battling for a few snaps. As I told yall, a guy like Kellen in front of you, that’s demoralizing,” Prescott said. “Seeing a guy that knows the game that well, me being as young as I was and not knowing it, that’s why he’s having the success he’s having as a playcaller and a coach, because of his mindset, because of how smart he is and his personality. For me to come up under him and be in the quarterback room with him the next year before him taking over to being a quarterback coach, fast track to an OC, which he’s been phenomenal at. A guy that sees the game, very innovative, is going to try things. He’s been huge to my career.”
“He’s more than a coach. He’s more than a coach. Obviously, he was a teammate that turned into a coach but he’s a friend. A friend for life. Talked to him earlier in the year. Wished him luck but obviously we’ve had our own things and our hands full. It will be great when I see him at some point come Monday.”
Prescott admitted that he was initially upset when Moore was let go but it was part of an offseason of change that included the departure of his running back Ezekiel Elliott, as well as Nussmeier.
That’s what the offseason is for sure. There were some times that early in the offseason that it was unfortunate. Tis year was different in the sense that
“It was Kellen, it was Nussmeier and it was Zeke,” Prescott said. “It was a few guys. It just wasn’t only one. So I think as tough as it was that in the sense that’s what made it easier. This is a business. But what I’m thankful for creating those relationships that are gonna last well well beyond this game and thankful for Kellen and Nuss and just everything that they brought to not only myself, this organization, this team and in the success that we had.”
