Cowboys-Chargers takeaways: Dallas regains footing with much-needed win before bye week

The wound San Francisco inflicted one week ago was deep.

It wasn’t too deep for the Cowboys to recover.

The Cowboys’ 20-17 win over the LA Chargers was a tough, resilient response to the humiliation of 42-10. It showed what this team is about and allowed them to go into the bye week with a 4-2 record.

The significance? A loss would have dropped Dallas to .500 and would have been their third of the season.

Dallas didn’t lose its third game last year until Nov. 13.

It’s third loss came Nov. 21 the year before that.

Offensive showdown?

Mike McCarthy took over the headsets as the Cowboys play-caller.

The coordinator he replaced was on the other sidelines.

Monday night was a duel between McCarthy and LA Chargers coordinator Kellen Moore for offensive supremacy. OK, that may be a bit of an overstatement. Let’s call it bragging rights.

In the interest of accuracy, we should probably back off that whole duel thing as well. This was more of an arm-wrestling match for the majority of the evening.

A total of two touchdowns had been scored entering the final period. The teams combined for only four touchdowns overall.

But in the end, the nod goes to McCarthy.

Defense regains footing

The Dallas defense has made no secret of its drive to be known as elite this season.

That drive was re-routed with a dismal performance against San Francisco.

The Cowboys allowed 42 points, 421 yards and allowed the Niners to score six touchdowns on its first 10 possessions.

Monday night appeared to be more of the same as the Chargers drove down the field on their opening possession to take a 7-0 lead. After that? The Cowboys forced four punts to end the half and opened the second half by stopping the Chargers inside the 10-yard line on downs.

Corner DaRon Bland, who replaced the injured Trevon Diggs earlier this season, made the play in the end zone to keep the Chargers off the board.

Pressure applied by the Cowboys defensive front gave Justin Herbert trouble all evening. The sacks were lacking, but the proof: that pressure resulted in six penalties committed by the offensive line. Defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence was dominant and safety Markquese Bell made his presence felt.

It was the defense that iced the victory. Micah Parsons got his first sack of the game in the final two minutes and Stephon Gilmore followed with an interception to secure the victory.

Prescott uses feet

Quarterback Dak Prescott hasn’t used his feet a lot this season to extend plays.

He did on this night.

Protection broke down time after time, and Prescott kept his cool, got outside of the pocket and gave himself and the offense a chance to make the play. The biggest: Dallas faced a third-and-11 on the first play of the fourth quarter. Prescott spun, got outside the pocket and hit Tony Pollard, who spun out of a tackle and went for 60 yards.

A few plays later, the Cowboys scored to take a 17-10 lead.

Prescott also used his feet to get the Cowboys on the scoreboard. On fourth-and-1 from the 18-yard line, he stuck the ball in Pollard’s gut, pulled it out and ran 18 yards for the touchdown.

Not so special

A botched special teams play interrupted the Cowboys defensive dominance in the second half.

Dallas owned a 17-10 lead and the defense had shut down Herbert and the offense again, forcing a punt. KaVontae Turpin called for the fair catch, but was pushed off the chance to make the catch.

He never touched it. If he hadn’t, it would have been the Cowboys ball. But Jalen Tolbert didn’t know that. He went for the loose ball and became the first player to touch it. When he couldn’t control it, the Chargers got the ball deep in Dallas territory and scored a few plays later to tie the score.

Lamb responds

CeeDee Lamb was frustrated in last week’s loss. You could tell by his body language. He vowed to be better.

He was.

Lamb caught four passes for 49 yards in last week’s loss. He had three catches for 50 yards in the first quarter of this game and finished with 7 catches for 117 yards. He was a factor from start to finish.

Catch David Moore and Robert Wilonsky as they co-host Intentional Grounding on The Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310 and 96.7 FM) every Wednesday night from 7-8 p.m. through the Super Bowl.

Twitter: @DavidMooreDMN

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