Former Chargers RB Austin Ekeler suffers a scary (and avoidable) injury vs. Cowboys

The game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Commanders on Sunday went from being a snooze fest to one of the most chaotic games of Week 12. Unfortunately, in that chaos, former LA Chargers running back Austin Ekeler suffered a scary injury that resulted in he left the game.

Ekeler returned a kickoff down eight with less than 15 seconds on the clock and tried to get the Commanders in field goal range. The former Chargers back took the ball all the way to Washington’s 36-yard line before a hard tackle resulted in him hitting the ground hard.

Ekeler was initially unresponsive while medical staff attended to him on the field. Fortunately, the former Chargers undrafted free agent got up and was able to walk off the field under his own power.

Injuries are arguably the worst part of sports, and they’re even worse when they’re avoidable. Ekeler’s injury should never have happened vs. Cowboys when he never should have made that kick in the first place.

Washington scored a miracle touchdown with no timeouts late in the fourth quarter to seemingly tie the game against the Cowboys. However, Washington missed its second extra point of the game, letting the Cowboys escape their own nightmare with a one point lead.

All Dallas had to do was take the onside kick, drop to the ground and take one knee to go to the locker room. Instead, Juanyeh Thomas played the onside kick, saw nothing but green grass in front of him and took the kick all the way to the end zone for the touchdown.

This was clearly the wrong decision to make as it left the Commanders back in the game with just an eight-point deficit. If Thomas would have just slipped, the game would have been over right then and there.

And if Thomas had just slipped, Ekeler would never have returned that kick and suffered the terrifying injury.

It is of course not Thomas’s fault. There was no way to predict that would happen to Ekeler, and it would be disgusting to insinuate that Thomas is to blame. But the unfortunate reality is that his decision created a sliding door moment, even unintentionally, that resulted in the former Chargers back getting hurt.

The entire Chargers fanbase should keep Ekeler in their thoughts. Hopefully, Ekeler leaving the field on his own ends up being a good omen.