Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys host the Los Angeles Chargers for their final home game of what’s been another disappointing season and finishing outside of the playoffs for the second year in a row. Just as the Cowboys missed the playoffs in the final year of Jason Garrett’s tenure and first year of Mike McCarthy’s, Dallas is doing the same moving on from McCarthy to Brian Schottenheimer.
There have been positive flashes under Schottenheimer that show he may still be the right coach to make a deep playoff run in seasons to come, but the overall reality of this team having a healthy Dak Prescott in year two of his massive contract and still sitting outside of the playoff is not a good one. The ongoing story that the Cowboys can’t get the overall roster around their franchise quarterbacks right enough to be a real contender simply won’t go away, even with the team being more active in free agency and the trade market in both the offseason and at the deadline this year.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys’ opponent this Sunday can clinch a second straight playoff berth with a win and loss by either the Houston Texans to the Las Vegas Raiders or Indianapolis Colts to the San Francisco 49ers. Their continuity in year two with Justin Herbert at QB and Jim Harbaugh as head coach is paying off, as the Chargers are on the verge of making the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since they did so four years in a row from 2006-09. The Chargers come to Arlington riding high after winning on the road at the Kansas City Chiefs, their third in a row that also earned them a tie with an impressive feat the Cowboys pulled off earlier this season. Prior to knocking the Chiefs out of the playoff picture, the Chargers beat the Eagles on Monday Night Football, meaning they also beat the two Super Bowl representatives from last season back-to-back.
The Chargers have a better overall situation around Justin Herbert than the Cowboys do for Dak Prescott right now. They proved they could win a low scoring game 16-13 against the Chiefs, but haven’t had the same success doing so against the Cowboys losing their last two matchups in this series 20-17 at home. The Cowboys have not had any of the same recent luck winning when they score less than 30 points, and in one career game against Matt Eberflus’ Bears defense, Herbert put up 30 points in a 30-13 win. The Cowboys will need to match the playoff-hungry intensity of the Chargers, make the right defensive adjustments to not let Herbert beat them for the first time in his career, and take care of the ball themselves offensively – all things that would be encouraging signs regardless of the game not having any meaning in the big picture for Dallas.
Dak Prescott is put in a position to outplay Justin...
