It was billed as a revenge game for Kellen Moore against his former boss Mike McCarthy, but that wasn’t the most important story line heading into Monday night’s matchup between the Chargers and Cowboys.
Yes, McCarthy fired Moore as his offensive coordinator and made some juicy comments for why he decided to let him go. McCarthy wanted to run the ball more, while the Chargers welcomed Moore and his pass-heavy scheme with open arms.
But McCarthy and Moore weren’t calling plays against each other at SoFi Stadium. The real battle was between McCarthy’s Cowboys offense and Brandon Staley’s Chargers defense.
I probably could have written this story beforehand because the Chargers often play in one-score games, including in every game this season. And when games are close, McCarthy tends to make questionable decisions. The same can be said about Staley’s fondness for going for it on fourth down.
Of course, this matchup went down to the wire. Of course, this matchup was filled with mistakes from both sides. But the Cowboys made fewer mistakes, defeating the Chargers, 20–17.
It helps the Cowboys that they have Micah Parsons and Stephon Gilmore on their side. Parsons had a critical sack on Justin Herbert on the final drive, which was followed by a Gilmore interception to seal the win for Dallas.
McCarthy won, but that doesn’t mean he made the right decision to let go of Moore. The Cowboys’ offense has regressed and they didn’t display much improvement Monday night. But at least the Cowboys can move on from their embarrassing loss against the 49ers in Week 5.
Even on a night when Herbert was off his game with missed throws, the Cowboys struggled to put away the Chargers, which makes you wonder why McCarthy decided to move on from Moore. The Cowboys’ offensive numbers are down across the board, and Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Tony Pollard are still employed in Dallas.
McCarthy pulled the “my words were taken out of context” card, but the Cowboys are running the ball more and throwing less this season. The strategy was meant to aid his defense, and it worked for a bit, but then the defense was hit with a wave of injuries.
The Cowboys are going to have to “light up the scoreboard” against the best teams in the NFL. They did enough vs. the Chargers’ undisciplined defense, but they don’t appear to be a better team without Moore. Herbert finished 22-of-37 for 227 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Prescott completed 21-of-30 passes for 272 yards and one touchdown.
With a clunky offense, the Cowboys might be headed for another brief postseason appearance if they don’t show improvement in the coming weeks. The Cowboys (4–2) head into the bye week before facing the Rams and Eagles.
“It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster ride as far as how we’ve performed and our productivity,” McCarthy said after the game. “It’s [been] six weeks, so we get a chance to reset, reboot [with the bye week].”
As for the Chargers (2–3), they now head into a critical road matchup against the Chiefs. If they lose that one, they might as well hand Kansas City its eighth consecutive AFC West title.
It might be a stretch to call it a must-win situation, but the pressure is on the Chargers because they didn’t come through in crunch time Monday night. With a three-point deficit, Herbert and his offense had a little more than two minutes to either tie the game or win it. Herbert and Moore might need more to build the Chargers’ new-look offense.
The battle between Moore and McCarthy got off to a fast start, as both offensive play-callers dialed up positive plays on their first touchdown drives. But that was followed by many stalled drives and boneheaded penalties from both sides during a sluggish first half. There was more action in the pregame skirmish between the Chargers and Cowboys.
McCarthy got bold with two fourth-down calls before halftime, but the Cowboys failed to convert on the second one—a “tush push” that was stopped short on fourth-and-1 from the Chargers’ 13-yard line.
Later in the opening half, McCarthy made a questionable decision to take his timeout with three seconds remaining instead of eight seconds. The officials stopped the clock at eight seconds thinking McCarthy wanted the timeout there to take at least one more shot in the end zone. After the confusing situation, the Cowboys settled for a 32-yard field goal to go into the locker room with a 10–7 advantage.
The Chargers struck first after Herbert connected with Keenan Allen for a one-yard touchdown on their opening drive that featured four passes for 44 yards.
McCarthy countered by getting his best players involved, Lamb and Pollard, to guide the Cowboys into the red zone for the first time Monday night. With the Cowboys facing a fourth-and-1, Prescott kept the ball on an option play, fooling the entire Chargers defense into going right. Prescott went the opposite way for an 18-yard touchdown run to tie the game 7–7 with 6:21 in the first quarter.
The battle between former colleagues and offensive play-callers didn’t deliver much excitement. But McCarthy’s squad made fewer mistakes Monday night.
