{"id":462993,"date":"2025-12-21T21:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T21:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/462993\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T21:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T21:42:10","slug":"chargers-defeat-cowboys-moving-to-edge-of-playoff-berth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/462993\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers defeat Cowboys, moving to edge of playoff berth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>ARLINGTON, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/chargers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chargers<\/a> won Sunday, and now they wait.<\/p>\n<p>After their <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/static.www.nfl.com\/image\/upload\/v1766350957\/gamecenter\/f8f9ff59-311e-11f0-b670-ae1250fadad1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">34-17 victory<\/a> over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, the Chargers can secure a spot in the postseason with a loss or tie by Houston or Indianapolis.<\/p>\n<p>The Texans play host to Las Vegas in an afternoon game, and the Colts play host to San Francisco on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>It was the seventh win in eight games for the Chargers, who are on a season-high, four-game winning streak. Sunday marked the third time they  topped 30 points this season.<\/p>\n<p>Chargers quarterback <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/chargers\/story\/2025-12-08\/justin-herbert-chargers-show-grit-eagles-overtime-win\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Justin Herbert<\/a> turned in another gritty performance, throwing for two touchdowns and plunging over the goal line for a third.<\/p>\n<p>A pivotal play by Herbert came on third and seven early in the fourth quarter as he kept the ball and scrambled for 34 yards. At the end of that run his surgically repaired left hand collided with the helmet of his Cowboys tackler. The quarterback briefly writhed on the turf but didn\u2019t come out of the game.<\/p>\n<p>Late in the game, as rookie <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/chargers\/story\/2025-04-24\/chargers-draft-round-1-omarion-hampton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Omarion Hampton<\/a> ran for a touchdown, Herbert joined him in the end zone and exchanged high-fives with teammates, careful to protect his casted left hand.<\/p>\n<p>Although the Cowboys came into Sunday\u2019s game eliminated from postseason contention, they still had the NFL\u2019s No. 1 offense and a potent passing attack led by Dak Prescott. He effectively neutralized the Chargers\u2019 defense in the first half, with touchdown passes in the first and second quarters.<\/p>\n<p>The Chargers close the regular season with a home game Saturday against Houston and a finale at Denver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Chargers won Sunday, and now they wait. After their 34-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":462994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[211068,1582,276,83569,7151,211070,2384,10754,4345,29334,2961,211071,224,5337,121513,121766,5950,1404,211069,50647],"class_list":{"0":"post-462993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-afternoon-game","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-charger","12":"tag-chargers","13":"tag-cowboys-tackler","14":"tag-end","15":"tag-host","16":"tag-houston","17":"tag-justin-herbert","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-left-hand","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-playoff-berth","23":"tag-postseason","24":"tag-season","25":"tag-sunday","26":"tag-third-time","27":"tag-touchdown"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}