For all of the scrutiny directed at the Dallas Cowboys' defense this season, Week 6 proved that their offense is just as much of a problem at the moment. The Green Bay Packers stifled Dak Prescott and the rest of the star-studded unit in a 23-13 win on "Sunday Night Football," laying bare all of the Cowboys' various offensive issues.
Things got off to a rough start for Dallas pretty much right away. The Cowboys elected to punt on fourth-and-4 from inside Green Bay territory on their opening drive, and the defense then let the Packers march right down the field for a touchdown.
Green Bay covered 90 yards on 14 plays in 6 minutes and 30 seconds, with Jordan Love finding Matthew Golden in the back of the end zone to give the Packers a lead that would never be seriously challenged. Love actually threw for 109 yards on that drive, thanks to penalties and runs for negative yardage that briefly set the Packers backward.
Dallas went three-and-out on its ensuing possession, but then the defense came up with its first big play of the night — a Dee Winters interception that was initially ruled a pick six before it was reviewed and he was declared down by contact. The Cowboys couldn't take advantage of that turnover, though, as Prescott was intercepted by Evan Williams on a throw over the middle where Prescott never saw Williams knifing into his passing lane.
It was like that pretty much all night for the Dallas passing attack, which limped to one of its worst performances in recent memory. That is a credit to Green Bay, which entered the week with the fifth-stingiest pass defense in the NFL. Jonathan Gannon's unit picked off Prescott twice (once by Williams and once by rookie Brandon Cisse, who took advantage of a play where CeeDee Lamb fell down on his route) and frustrated both Lamb and George Pickens throughout the evening.
On the other side of the ball, Love wasn't necessarily efficient (6.7 yards per attempt and the aforementioned interception), but he was explosive at times, and he was on point in big situations. He repeatedly converted on third downs to extend drives and give the Packers chances to get deep into Dallas territory. So even though the Packers could once again not get anything going on the ground (26 carries for 57 yards), they looked like the far more functional offense throughout the evening.
The primetime result extended the Packers' winning streak to three games, as Green Bay seems to have saved its season from the brink. The Packers felt like they were on the verge of collapse after a blowout loss to the Falcons on Thursday night three weeks ago, but they have steadied the ship and pushed their record to 4-2.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys have been dealt their second loss in as many weeks, with this one somehow just as dispiriting as the one they suffered last week at the hands of the Buccaneers. The Cowboys are 2-4, and they appear to be spiraling in the wrong direction.
CBS Sports was with you throughout the Packers' victory. Below are our takeaways, plus highlights, stats, and in-game analysis from the Sunday night showdown.
Green Bay started this game 7-for-7 on third down and finished it 11-for-18. The Packers also converted their only fourth-down opportunity. Jordan Love went 9-of-14 for 117 yards and a touchdown on third down alone, repeatedly connecting with Matthew Golden and Christian Watson, as well as finding check-downs to Pierre Strong and Tucker Kraft to convert for first downs.
Green Bay converted all four of its third-down opportunities on the first drive of the game alone, setting the tone for how things would go through the rest of the evening.
Love consistently hung in the pocket under duress, tying a career high in passing yards under pressure, according to ESPN Insights. He would drift slightly backward and just hit fadeaway jumpers to his targets — especially Golden, whom he found multiple times on plays like this one.
Green Bay simply would not let the Dallas defense get off the field in big situations, resulting in the Packers consistently churning out long drives. They had five possessions that lasted 14, 15, 9, 11 and 9 plays. They broke the Cowboys defense's backs on multiple occasions.
Given the quality of the defense, Dallas cannot afford to have a limp offensive performance like this one, but that's exactly what happened here.
The Cowboys just could not move the ball with any consistency, either on the ground (which they barely tried, with just 13 rushing attempts for 41 yards) or through the air (where Prescott averaged a mere 4.8 yards per attempt). In total, they averaged just 4.3 yards per play, which would rank dead last in pretty much any season.
Jonathan Gannon's defense had Prescott and Brian Schottenheimer off balance all night. Dak was under pressure for pretty much the entire evening, and the Cowboys had no answers either for Green Bay's blitz packages or the situations where the Packers dropped into coverage.
Prescott was intercepted twice and had a third pick erased by a bogus roughing the passer call, and he couldn't find CeeDee Lamb or George Pickens for any chunk gains. Lamb turned his 18 targets into only 70 yards and Pickens gained just 73 yards on his 11 looks.
Prescott's 4.8 yards-per-attempt average marked just the 10th time in 145 career starts that he was held under 5.0 per attempt. The Cowboys are now 1-9 in those games, with the only win coming all the way back in 2017. They can't afford to have their quarterback limited in this fashion.
Green Bay controlled this game pretty much from the jump. The Packers will move to 4-2 on the season while Dallas will drop to 2-4. The Packers have turned their season around after their Thursday night loss to the Falcons, while the Cowboys are spiraling with back-to-back bad losses.
Dallas finally gets into the end zone for the second time, with Flournoy getting away with a pretty blatant offensive pass interference but catching the touchdown pass nonetheless. The Cowboys did not convert the two-point try, so if the Packers can recover the upcoming onside kick, the game is over.
This one is just about over after Dallas' fourth-down failure just outside the red zone. Dak Prescott had to throw the ball to nobody because he was under immediate pressure from the Packers' pass rush. If Green Bay can get a couple first downs, the Packers can run out the clock.
After a very questionable roughing the passer call erased a Packers interception, the Cowboys got to fourth-and-5 on their ensuing set of downs and converted with a short pass to Ryan Flournoy. However, Tyler Booker was called for a personal foul after the whistle and moved them back 15 yards following the conversion.
The Packers cornerback just left the field after a short completion to George Pickens. He's being looked at on the sideline.
Green Bay looked like it was poised to take advantage of the turnover on downs by moving the ball deep into Dallas territory, but stalled out inside the red zone. The Packers did convert another third down along the way, though, so they're now 11 of 17 on third downs. (Dallas is 4 of 10.)
After the Packers sent a blitz on third down and Dak Prescott had to throw a fadeaway jumper to CeeDee Lamb on a slant that came up short, Dallas moved the pocket on fourth down and had Dak try a quick out to Lamb, but Javon Bullard got in the throwing lane and deflected the pass to the ground. Packers take over near midfield.
Soon after I said that the Cowboys couldn't get off the field, they finally got off the field thanks to a broken-up screen play on third-and-8. That set up a 44-yard field goal by Smack to push the lead back up to 13 points two thirds of the way through the third quarter.
Green Bay just converted a fourth-and-3 with 14-yard pass to Tucker Kraft in the flat. The Packers are now 10 of 13 on third down and 1 of 1 on fourth down. The Cowboys defense cannot get them off the field.
Dallas finally put together a representative drive and capitalized with a score. Dak hit CeeDee for a nice gain on fourth-and-2 to get near the red zone, and then Javonte Williams did most of the rest of the work, including punching the ball into the end zone from a yard out.
The rout is on in Green Bay. The Packers EASILY marched down the field after the Cisse interception. Even after Golden's drop, Green Bay got down to the goal line with another Golden catch and then a pass inteference in the end zone — the second pass interference call of the drive. That set up Love's QB sneak for the score.
Matthew Golden has a touchdown tonight, but he has also now dropped what would have been his second and third scores of the game.
The Packers tight end took a hit from Caleb Downs to his left leg and stayed down on the sideline for about a minute. He's headed to the medical tent.
CeeDee Lamb slipped on his route and Dak Prescott's throw went right into the hands of the rookie defensive back.
Very weird sequence for the Packers. They had fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line. They let the clock run down while looking like they were going to go for it, but called a timeout before the play clock hit zero. Then they took a delay of game after the timeout and kicked a field goal. If you weren't going for it, why call the timeout in the first place? Either way, Packers are now up by two scores.
One play after he got absolutely rocked by Zaire Franklin, Dak Prescott tried to fit a throw into a tight window over the middle of the field and got picked off. It looked like he never even saw Evan Williams sitting there to come away with the interception.
The Packers RB headed into the medical tent and is still being attended to by trainers. Green Bay has Pierre Strong and Kaleb Johnson behind Lloyd.
This is just the third turnover of the year forced by the Dallas defense. Winters went to the ground to pick off a Jordan Love pass intended for Matthew Golden. He then broke a couple tackles on his way to the end zone for the score. MarShawn Lloyd was injured for the Packers on the play. The play was reviewed to see if Winters was contacted when he went to the ground, which he was. Dallas ball.
The Packers converted four third downs on their way to the end zone, including this third-and-6 slant working on backup cornerback Ameer Speed. Golden had the catch earlier in the drive to get the Packers into scoring territory in the first place. Packers up early.
Matthew Golden hit the Cowboys deep for a 37-yard gain up the left sideline and was flagged for taunting afterward because he flexed his muscles while looking at Cowboys corner Shavon Revel. Really weak penalty call.
The Cowboys' WR/KR is questionable to return with a rib injury. He must have gotten dinged on the opening kickoff.
Brevyn Spann-Ford got the start at tight end for the Cowboys ahead of Jake Ferguson, whose fumbles and drops (including two last week that included the game-sealing interception) have been a major issue this year. Ferguson did come on the field for the second snap.
The Packers went off for 41 points last week against the Bears, piling up a season-high 428 yards in the process. Jordan Love repeatedly completed downfield passes, something he'll have another opportunity to do tonight against this Dallas secondary that has been very friendly to opposing passing games.
The Cowboys enter this game with the 31st-ranked defense (395.4 total yards allowed per game), the last-place run defense (168.4 rushing yards allowed per game) and the worst third-down defense (52.6% third-down conversion rate allowed) in the league. They recently brought in former Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine to be an advisor to first-year DC Christian Parker. We'll see if that helps tonight.
