INGLEWOOD — Easton Stick’s first pass wasn’t exactly on target in the first quarter of the Chargers’ exhibition game Saturday against the Dallas Cowboys at SoFi Stadium. He attempted to connect with wide receiver Joshua Palmer on a second-and-nine play at his own 36-yard line.

Cowboys’ safety Israel Mukuamu intercepted the pass at his own 37 and raced out of bounds to celebrate with his teammates on the sideline.

Uh-oh.

Would it be one of those nights for one of two Chargers’ quarterbacks vying to become Justin Herbert’s backup when the regular season begins Sept. 11? Stick got the start Saturday after coming off the bench to replace Chase Daniel in the Chargers’ loss last Saturday to the Rams.

As it turned out, it was merely one play in an eventful half for the Chargers and for Stick, who made amends with an 18-yard touchdown pass play to Palmer in the second half that gave the Chargers an all-too-brief 10-7 lead en route to a 29-10 deficit by halftime.

It wasn’t just the giant overhanging scoreboard that went haywire.

By halftime, Stick completed 11 of 20 passes for 134 yards. He also was the Chargers’ leading rusher with two carries for 24 yards, including a 25-yard scramble on the final play of the first quarter, keeping alive a scoring drive that resulted in his screen pass to Palmer for a TD.

Super frustrating,” Stick said after the Chargers’ 32-18 loss to the Cowboys dropped them to 0-2 in exhibition play. “Two turnovers and you only score 10 points in the half. That’s frustrating, and just losing the way we did. Just not good enough anywhere tonight.

“And it starts with me on the first drive (throwing an interception). It can’t happen like that. Forced it. Stepped up. Just one of those deals. Bad. Hyper aggressive. Poor.”

Daniel replaced Stick to start the third quarter, with the Chargers in a deep hole, a reverse of their assignments against the Rams. They’re expected to split the quarterbacking duties again next Friday in the Chargers’ exhibition finale against the New Orleans Saints.

“I think he has a huge role on this football team,” Chargers coach Brandon Staley said of Stick in the early days of training camp. “I thought he had a huge role last year. Easton is really improving as a player and I can’t say that enough. I’m really proud of his progress as a passer.

Related Articles

“I think everyone knew that he could make plays. Everyone knew that he had a lot of intangibles, a lot of quarterbacking stuff that way. … He’s going to have a big role. He and Chase play a big role with Justin, and we feel like our quarterback environment is a big edge for our team.”

Stick had mixed results in the first half Saturday, though he wasn’t responsible for all of the Chargers’ halftime deficit.

On the plus side, Stick and Palmer linked up for three passes converting 75 yards, including an 18-yard touchdown and a 41-yard gain on a first-quarter play.

However, Stick wasn’t as sharp as he needed to be and, in the closing seconds of the half, he had the ball stripped from him by Dallas’ Trysten Hill, who recovered the fumble at the Chargers’ 15. Four plays later, Malik Davis scored on a one-yard run and the Cowboys’ lead was 29-10.

The Chargers’ special teams had given up a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and an 86-yard punt return for touchdowns by the Cowboys’ KaVontae Turpin, who was listed as the third returner on the Dallas depth chart. Mercifully, for Chargers fans, replays were unavailable because of a scoreboard outage.

In addition, the Chargers gave up a two-yard TD run to Rico Dowdle, who carried 13 times for 44 yards in the first half.

The scoreboard returned to life early in the third quarter, drawing a rousing ovation from the fans. Like the Chargers’ overall play, it wasn’t exactly flawless, with several large blocks malfunctioning at first before it finally returned to form midway through the third quarter.