The Cowboys and Chargers did not exactly put on an offensive exhibition on Monday night in Southern California.
But Dallas did enough to win, holding on for a 20-17 victory over Los Angeles to improve to 4-2 on the season.
Each team scored a touchdown in the first quarter. Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert found Keenan Allen in the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown to take a 7-0 lead. In response, the Cowboys got to the paint with quarterback Dak Prescott taking a QB keeper 18 yards to the end zone on fourth-and-1 for a game-tying TD.
Both Dallas and L.A. were held scoreless until the end of the second quarter, when Brandon Aubrey hit a 32-yard field goal to give the Cowboys a 10-7 halftime lead. But Dallas had squandered an opportunity in the red zone when Prescott failed to convert fourth-and-1 with an Eagles-style “tush push” play.
In the third quarter, The Chargers missed one opportunity to score in the third quarter when a Herbert pass to Joshua Palmer on fourth-and-1 from the Dallas 7 fell incomplete in the end zone.
But after forcing a Dallas punt, the Chargers were able to tie the game at 10-10 with a 24-yard field goal from Cameron Dicker.
A 60-yard reception by Tony Pollard to start the fourth quarter put the Cowboys in scoring position, which the club finished off with a 2-yard TD pass from Prescott to Cooks.
But armed with a 17-10 lead, the Cowboys committed a poor special teams blunder that allowed L.A. to tie the game. It looked like Cowboys receiver Jalen Tolbert thought the ball had been touched first by one of his teammates and he attempted to recover it at the Dallas 20. But it, in fact, had not been touched yet. So when he tried and failed to recover the ball, it gave the Chargers an opportunity to recover the muffed punt, which they did.
On fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Herbert connected with tight end Gerald Everett for the tight end’s first touchdown of the year.
Dallas kept its ensuing drive going with a big third-down catch by Cooks on third-and-9 for an 11-yard gain in L.A. territory. But on third-and-10 from the Chargers 21, Prescott’s pass to Pollard in the end zone was out of reach and fell incomplete. Dallas had to settle for a go-ahead, 39-yard field goal to make the score 20-17 with 2:19 left.
With no timeouts remaining after the two-minute warning, the Chargers got a first down but Micah Parsons blasted his way through the line to sack Herbert on second down. Then while under pressure, Herbert threw an interception to Stephon Gilmore on the right side to seal the Dallas victory.
Dallas finished the game with 11 accepted penalties for 85 yards while L.A. had nine penalties for 79 yards.
Prescott was 21-of-30 passing for 272 yards with a touchdown. He also led the Cowboys with 40 yards rushing and a TD. CeeDee Lamb was terrific, catching all seven of his targets for 117 yards.
Herbert was 22-of-37 for 227 yards with two touchdowns and a pick.
Now at 3-2, the Cowboys will be on their bye in Week 7.
The 2-3 Chargers will head to Kansas City to play the 5-1 Chiefs.
