The Cowboys managed to make life hard on themselves again, and this time the defense actually gave them a chance to survive it.
Instead, Dallas turned in a flat offensive showing in a 23-13 loss to the Packers on Sunday night, dropping its second straight game. The final score doesn’t fully capture how little the Cowboys had going on after the opening stretch.
Green Bay’s defense kept handing Dallas openings with penalties, but the Cowboys never took advantage. Dak Prescott looked shaky in the pocket, the offensive line gave him no time, the receivers dropped balls, and the running game never showed up.
That’s what made the night so frustrating: this was the rare game where the defense was not the problem. Even with Green Bay’s offense doing enough early, Dallas still had chances to claw back. They just didn’t do anything with them.
It started to slip away almost immediately. After the Cowboys punted on their first possession, the Packers went on a 90-yard drive that lasted 6:30 and set the tone. Green Bay converted four third downs on the march, including twice on third-and-13, before Jordan Love found Golden on third-and-6 for the opening touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
From there, Dallas was chasing.
The offense never found any rhythm, and the first few mistakes only made the hole deeper. A pick-6 was taken off the board, CeeDee Lamb fell down on a play that led to an interception, and what might have been a 14-10 Dallas lead instead became a 17-0 Green Bay advantage at halftime.
As one account put it, “Why? Because it is the Cowboys.”
Even the box score is a little misleading. Dallas finished with 13 points, but six of those came in garbage time when the game was already out of reach.
The broader feeling around the loss was all too familiar. The team had 10 days to prepare after last week’s defeat, and still came out looking disjointed.
There were complaints about the play-calling, including the decision to throw short of the sticks on third down without planning to go for it on fourth. CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens were not targeted on those snaps, and the result looked especially bad after the extra prep time.
The mess wasn’t limited to one phase. Dallas struggled to get out of its own way all night, with dropped balls, missed blocks, and slipping becoming part of the story. That kind of self-inflicted damage has become a recurring theme, and it was on full display again here.
As the night wound down, the larger outlook around the Cowboys didn’t exactly brighten. One reaction to the loss suggested this game may have marked the end of Dallas’ season, noting that even a win next week against the Eagles would still leave the team with a steep climb in the division race.
For all the noise around the NFC East, the Cowboys’ immediate problem is simpler than that: they can’t clean up the mistakes, and they keep making the game harder than it needs to be.
In Other News...
Cowboys Lose Another Key Piece In A Night They Couldnt Afford It
The Cowboys entered Sunday night already needing things to break their way, and losing KaVontae Turpin in the first half only made the margin for error even thinner. Turpin, who usually handles kick return duties, went out with a rib injury against the Packers and did not return, leaving Dallas to patch together yet another important spot on a night when it could ill afford another setback.
Jerry Jones still sounded encouraged by where the team is headed, pointing to the progress he sees despite Dallas sitting at 2-3. But a game like this serves as a reminder of how fragile that optimism can be when key pieces keep disappearing, especially on special teams, where Turpins speed and field-flipping ability are part of what makes this roster harder to defend. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Turn To Rookie As Pressure Builds On Struggling Defense
Pressure is rising on a Cowboys defense that has struggled to find its footing, and the next answer is coming from a rookie. Dallas is turning to Malachi Lawrence to start at outside linebacker against the Green Bay Packers, giving the first-round pick his first career start after taking him 23rd overall in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Brian Schottenheimer has seen enough from Lawrence recently to make the move, and the coach signaled that more opportunities should follow. For a defense trying to steady itself, the decision gives Dallas a new look up front and a chance to see whether its young edge rusher can bring some needed energy into a difficult spot. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Sit Atop An NFC East Mess That Just Got Worse
The NFC East has spent the last few weeks looking like a division stuck in reverse, and the Cowboys loss to the Packers only added to the mess. With the Commanders set to enter Sunday as underdogs against the 49ers, the leagues most unpredictable division is suddenly staring at a stat line nobody wants attached to it: a chance to go winless in back-to-back weeks when every team played, something that has not happened since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.
For the Cowboys, the bigger frustration is that the standings are still wide open even as the losses pile up. The Giants are sitting atop the division for now, but the upcoming slate could reshuffle everything again, leaving Dallas, Washington and the rest of the East to sort out whether this is a temporary rough patch or a much deeper slide. [Read more 🡒]