Chargers’ defense makes halftime adjustments to get necessary results

ARLINGTON, Texas — Seventeen points in the first half?

Too many, as far as the Chargers’ defensive players were concerned.

Two hundred-eleven total net yards?

Too many.

Sixty-one rushing yards?

Too many.

So, the Chargers’ defensive unit held an impromptu meeting in their locker room at halftime of their game Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. They needed to get back on track. They needed to return to the defensive pressure that had given up an average of 15.5 points in their previous three games.

What was the message?

“We all just got to lock in and do what we can do and that’s just play together and actually communicate and play our style of football,” Chargers linebacker Denzel Perryman said, relating at least part of a players-only conversation with the team holding a 21-17 lead over the Cowboys.

“We talked a little bit on the sideline, but more so when we came in here.”

There’s not much time for great rah-rah speeches or dramatic changes to the game plan during an NFL halftime, which is only 14 minutes from the time the players begin departing for their locker room. So, what was said was said in a hurry, while the coaching staff put their heads together.

“We come in, we reflect a little bit,” Perryman explained. “The coaches have their little meetings and when they come out, they give their little coaching points. But while they’re doing their thing, we’re out here talking amongst ourselves. The message was basically clear, ‘Let’s get back to doing what we were doing.’”

The Chargers needed to get back to the sort of stingy defense that limited the Las Vegas Raiders to 14 points, the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles to 19 points and the Super Bowl runner-up Kansas City Chiefs to 13. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott had been a handful in the first half.

Prescott cooled in the second half, partly because the Chargers extended their lead and he was forced to pass more often and partly because the Cowboys’ running game stalled. The Chargers held the Cowboys to zero points, 129 total net yards and 30 yards rushing in the second half.

“Played the run better, put more of a roof on it in safety coverage to take away the big plays,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said of their second-half adjustments. “Just played the run better right from the start of the (second) half, so we could give more help (covering the Cowboys’) playmakers.”

EXTRA POINTS

Outside linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu had the Chargers’ only sack of Prescott among his four tackles. He also had a fumble recovery that was forced by safety Derwin James Jr. Tuipulotu has a career high 13 sacks this season. … Safety Tony Jefferson had a team-leading eight tackles, one game after he was ejected and later fined by the NFL for a hard tackle and making an obscene gesture directed at Kansas City Chiefs fans. … Cameron Dicker’s two field goals gave him 36 this season, his second season in a row with 35 or more.