INglewood, CA – In a perfect world, Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy wouldn’t have accepted a game-winning field goal attempt from 56 yards. Greg Zorlin In the last seconds against the Los Angeles Chargers.

But several problems arose.

First, a player walked off the field after Tony Pollard ran 3 yards to L.A. 38 in second with 33 seconds to play.

“One of our players went out and shouldn’t have paid off,” McCarthy said. “Just a connection error.”

Then the clock McCarthy was observing on the digital board on the SoFi stadium went out.

“I’ve never had a watch come off the board like this before,” McCarthy said.

Attack coordinator Kellen Moore wasn’t in a better position either.

“He was stopped by a photographer,” McCarthy said of Moore’s ability to see one of the field watches.

Rather than using the timeout early and potentially leaving the Cowboys at a disadvantage if they run a third play, McCarthy opted to let the clock run out with the help of his assistant coaches from the coaches booth and called for a timeout with four seconds to play.

“Once we didn’t have the individuals assigned to the third call, we were in the middle as soon as you got under 17 seconds,” McCarthy said. “It’s a threshold, so we let it go down and take the kick.”

Zuerlein made it work by calling into the game’s longest winning field goal with no time remaining in regulation in franchise history, which resulted in the Cowboys winning 20-17 10 days after failing a field goal and PAT attempt that cost them a 31-29 loss to the Pirates. Tampa Bay in the opening game.

Duck Prescott He wasn’t aware of any coaches’ clock problems even after Zorlin’s kick

“I wasn’t sure,” he said. “I’m looking at the end zone clock. I saw the time.” “I thought we were comfortable and we were good on goal and that’s what they wanted to do.”

The comeback win was Prescott’s eleventh in his career when the Cowboys were tied or trailed in the fourth quarter. While the performance wasn’t particularly aesthetic, like when he needed to throw for 182 yards in the final quarter of a 40-39 win against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2 last year, Prescott was efficient and thoughtful.

Prescott captured 3:49 to play after the Chargers tied the match, and completed all five of his passes for 35 yards, including a 12-yard key throw to Amary Cooper on the slope.

“I think you see the best of Dak Prescott in those situations,” McCarthy said. “We put a lot of time into them. I really like his demeanor and standing up in the two-minute drills. It’s good to get one on Sunday. I think that’s obviously a product of your Duck and the offensive players and coaches, just the amount of time he puts into the two-minute drills. That means A lot when you’re able to accomplish that in a live play situation.”

For the game, Prescott completed 23 of 27 passes for 237 passes. He has not thrown a touchdown pass for the first time in his last seven starts and finishes. He also got a pass, marking the fifth consecutive game in which he has received at least one interception, the longest streak of his career.

But he left with his first win since he sustained a compound fracture and dislocated his right ankle last year. He underwent two surgeries, countless hours of rehabilitation and questions about his health at training camp after suffering a muscle strain in his right shoulder.

What I miss the most in his time away were moments like Sunday.

“It’s what you do for the ball in your hands, for a chance to win it,” Prescott said. “That’s what I was talking about about the offense, telling them we got the match in the position we wanted. We have to take advantage and finish this match, we were able to get into the field goal range and let the special teams go. There they do their job.”