What sparked pregame skirmish between Dallas, Chargers?

The Cowboys head into their bye week with a 4-2 record thanks to their 20-17 win at the Chargers on Monday Night Football. But when So Fi Stadium is so close to Hollywood, we should expect a little extra drama and that’s what we got half an hour before kickoff.

Pregame skirmish: As the Chargers’ defensive backs went through their regularly scheduled pregame position group drills, the Cowboys’ defensive linemen were running from their tunnel onto the field to begin their own pregame routine. The tunnel is located on the North side of the field. The Cowboys’ half of the field during pregame is the South side of the field.

Uh-oh… opponents running through another team’s pregame drills. What could possibly go wrong?

Just think of the “Ghostbusters” movie: “don’t cross the streams!” Something bad is probably going to happen.

And as the Cowboys defensive linemen ran through the Chargers DBs, the streams crossed and tempers flared.

DB warmups take place between the 40 and 50-yard lines directly in front of the Cowboys’ bench. That’s the normal spot for DBs during that portion of the pregame. So don’t blame the Chargers for invading the Cowboys’ territory. It was nothing like that.

But as the Cowboys’ defensive linemen ran past (okay, “through” the drills), the DBs took exception. Several of the linemen stopped, including Mazi Smith and Sam Williams. William’s facemask was grabbed by a Chargers player and the fracas was underway. Teammates from both sides rushed over. Chargers RB Austin Ekeler made his way into the middle of the skirmish, only to have his helmet knocked off by Dante Fowler.

Because the fisticuffs were taking place directly in front of the Cowboys’ bench, several coaches were able to quickly jump in as peacemakers, including Al Harris, Dan Quinn, Evan Harrington and the strength & conditioning coaches. The NFL officiating crew was already on the field, thankfully, but the coaches were closer so they broke up most of the fighting before the officials made it to the skirmish.

Cowboys-Chargers was not the only pregame embarrassment for the NFL in Week 6. The 49ers-Browns game also had a pregame skirmish.

I would expect the league to take a hard look at measures to prevent this type of nonsense. Logistics played a part Monday night, one team having to run past opponents to get to their own side of the field for warmups. Can the league adjust each team’s entrance/exit from the tunnel to the field to avoid this ‘crossing of streams’? Not all facilities are laid out the same way. For example, at AT&T Stadium the teams enter/exit behind their respective benches.

But some of the older venues don’t have multiple tunnels behind each end zone (nor tunnels directly behind each bench), so it would be difficult to come up with a single standard for all games. Cracking down on players by doling out fines would hit the players in their wallets would be a deterrent, but nobody was thinking of fines in the heat of the moment on Monday night.

Video evidence: Although there were plenty of media members and video cameras along the sideline during pregame, there’s very little video available of the skirmish. Why? Because 20 yards further down the Cowboys’ sideline, Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson were yukking it up for the cameras. Media, including local TV crews, had their cameras trained on Jerry & Jimmy. The former head coach, who does his Sunday gig for Fox on the campus at So Fi Stadium, also visited with Troy Aikman during pregame. Aikman was on the call for Monday Night Football.

Managing the clock: Time management at the end of the first half was interesting, to say the least. With 14 seconds remaining Dak Prescott completed a 3-yard pass to Tony Pollard who was downed at the Chargers 14-yard line with approximately eight seconds still on the clock and two timeouts for the Cowboys. But head coach Mike McCarthy did not immediately call a timeout, allowing the clock to wind down to three seconds before using a timeout to send Brandon Aubrey and the field goal unit onto the field.

McCarthy had no intention of taking a timeout before the three-second mark. He was standing next to the down judge (Tom Stephan), pointing to the game clock which was field level behind the end zone.

Some thought McCarthy would use the timeout as soon as Pollard was tackled; that’s what led to some confusion among fans and some media. I was standing directly behind McCarthy and the down judge as the game clock resumed and counted down to three seconds. McCarthy communicated with the official the whole time. With the chip shot 32-yard field goal by Brandon Aubrey, the Cowboys took a 10-7 lead.

Home away from home: The sellout crowd of 70,240 at So Fi Stadium was at least 50% Cowboys fans. Am I overestimating or maybe guessing based on colors of jerseys worn by fans? No. The crowd noise was equal for both fan bases because both the Cowboys and Chargers offenses had to use “silent counts” throughout the game.

The Chargers using a silent count during a home game was exacerbated by the fact that QB Justin Herbert was in shotgun formation for more than 70 offensive snaps. Herbert played with a broken middle finger on his left (non-throwing) hand and took shotgun snaps rather than snaps directly under center.

And one last note on the turnout by Cowboys fans: ticket demand was so high, the cheapest re-sale ticket available on SeatGeek.com the day of the game was $284. It was way up in the nosebleed sections. One day earlier at So Fi Stadium, the Rams hosted the Cardinals. Tickets in those same upper deck sections were as low as $25. Not a typo… $25 for Cards-Rams resale tickets.

Star power: Any game in L.A. draws star power, including LeBron James in the same suite as Dez Bryant & Trevon Diggs. But leave it to a member of a boy band to steal the show. Lance Bass of N’Sync was in another of the suites. As the video board showed Bass, he held up a hand-written sign saying “NOT TAYLOR SWIFT.” It drew one of the largest cheers of the day.

Why was Deuce Vaughn inactive?: Why was running back Malik Davis, elevated from the practice squad on Monday, active for the game instead of Deuce Vaughn? Because Davis can play all four units of special teams. Without special teams stalwarts C.J. Goodwin (injured reserve, torn pectoral) and Juanyeah Thomas (hamstring), the Cowboys needed all hands on deck for special teams. It’s the same reason they went with six wide receivers active for gameday. Rookie WR Jalen Brooks served as gunner on punt coverage. Interestingly, Brooks got the nod at gunner over CB Noah Igbinoghene who was inactive even though Igbinoghene filled in for Goodwin at gunner when Goodwin was injured during the Week 5 loss at the 49ers.

Kearse assumes “green dot” duties: With MLB Leighton Vander Esch placed on injured reserve with a neck injury, Dan Quinn turned to safety Jayron Kearse to be the primary “Green Dot” player to relay the defensive play calls from the coordinator to teammates in the defensive huddle. The other two “green dots” were S Malik Hooker and LB Damone Clark.

Although 3 “Green Dot” radio helmets are allowed on defense, only one defender at a time can be on the field with a radio helmet. So, when Kearse was on the field, Hooker and Clark had to wear their normal helmets (not equipped with radio receivers).

Kearse played 60 of 73 defensive snaps. When Kearse wasn’t on the field, Hooker wore a Green Dot and relayed the calls. Through the first 5 games, the Green Dots were Vander Esch, Kearse and Hooker.

Why are they called “Green Dot” helmets? Because a radio helmet has a neon green sticker (about the size of a half-dollar coin) on the back of it. The bright green sticker can easily be seen by the officiating crew. And the officiating crew is responsible for making sure a maximum of one Green Dot helmet per team is being used each play.

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.