The Cowboys have seen their last two games come down to last-second field goals. Last week it resulted in a win for Tom Brady and the Buccaneers, but this time it was in Dallas’ favor. Greg Zuerlein hit a 56-yarder to cancel overtime and lift the Cowboys to a 20-17 road win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Dallas established a 14-3 lead in the 1st Quarter and needed every bit of it over the rest of the day. The Cowboys were unable to get back to the endzone but did enough to work the clock, set up two Zuerlein field goals, and avoid huge mistakes to preserve the victory.
It was a much slower day for Dak Prescott; only 237 passing yards and no touchdowns. He also had one interception early which was clearly a bad throw, as opposed to last week’s pick that came off CeeDee Lamb’s hands.
It was Lamb who led all Dallas receivers with eight catches for 81 yards. The quiet day in general for the passing game was largely thanks to ground dominance; the Cowboys had 198 total rushing yards and Tony Pollard posting 109 of them on just 13 carries. Ezekiel Elliott added 71 yards and both he and Pollard scored one of the early touchdowns.
Dallas’ defense had its issues, sacrificing a little over 400 yards, but also made some huge plays in critical moments. Trevon Diggs got his second INT of the year to end Los Angeles’ first possession and Damontae Kazee had a huge endzone pick late in the 3rd to keep points off the board.
After failing to get any sacks against Brady last week, Dallas got to Justin Herbert twice today even with DeMarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory out. The two sacks went to Leighton Vander Esch and Micah Parsons, who was used a lot as a pass rusher today.
The win moves Dallas to 1-1 on the year and creates a three-way tie with Philadelphia and Washington. The Football Team got a win last Thursday night over the Giants, who are now 0-2, and the Eagles lost earlier today to the 49ers.
Dallas and Philadelphia will both get an extra day off now as they prepare for a Monday Night Football showdown in Week 3. It will be the Cowboys’ first home game of 2021, and thankfully they’ll be coming into it now with some positive momentum.
Big win! Got some things to patch up on defense. Today is a prime example of if you can’t get to the Q B he will set back there and pick you apart! The middle of our defensive line is real soft! Looked like they were on roller skates several times but maybe we can fix this stuff and become a complete football team ! All in all good team win ! EE played hard but needs to give TP some of his big contract money!! Greg the Leg came through today hope he gets on a roll ! I also thought K M called a good offensive game ‘
Great TEAM WIN! BALANCED offense with Pollard being the star of the game IMO. He looks to be our best RB right now, with better burst and speed than EE. EE did make a big third down catch for a first down late in the game and ran for a TD, so good improvement from last game. That said, the O-line played well and opened some big lanes for him to run through. DP played well enough, good opening drive resulting in TD and final drive to get to winning FG.
CeeDee also had a big game, even having a nice run from scrimmage, and that first half last play that almost went the distance with that pitch to EE. Impressed with Kearse at Safety, and MP and LVE made some plays. And of course Zuerlein made that HUGE kick. Penalties really hurt the Chargers, including two TDs called back, that certainly helped us. Next up Philly.
I like the fact that on Fourth and short we went for it! This seems to be the trend now which in my option I like taking that chance if the situation is right! I also thought other than the clock management at the end of the game the coaches did a good job! I have to give credit where credit is due but when they goof up I bust their chops too!
Agree CFE, clock management was odd. For a second, I thought the clock was going run out!
The clock management was more than odd, it was idiotic, it worked, but you don’t plan on kicking a 56 yard field goal, if so then MMC is more ignorant of a HC than i thought
Overall a pretty good game, Dak was ok, missed some throws, but he was efficient overall, which is important, we went from throwing the ball over 50 times in a game, and a nonexistent run game to then running the ball more than we were throwing it, we were good both ways, so that is great to see as that means we could play with a lead or get back into games, you need that if you wanna make a deep playoff run
Defense was good, Herbert and Chargers gave us some breaks though, biggest break was that throw in the end zone where Keenan Allen fell down and Herbert thew it right straight to Kazee, but Diggs and Parsons stood out to me,
Parsons showed off versatility in being able to step in at DE and get after Herbert in a pretty pivotal part of the game
And Diggs made a clutch but also tough pick that gave our team some momentum
Overall good game, with some breaks in our favor, now let’s see if we can put it all together, if so, then we got a legit shot of winning not just division but possibly the NFC