‘Mistakes Are Killing Us’: Dallas Cowboys Fall To Green Bay Packers 23-13 After 17-0 Halftime Hole
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Two first-half interceptions of Dak Prescott and a Green Bay offense that converted 9 of its 10 first-half third downs put the Dallas Cowboys in a 17-0 hole at halftime Sunday night, and the Green Bay Packers held on for a 23-13 win at Lambeau Field.
Dallas fell to 2-4 with its second straight loss, while Green Bay won for the third straight game and improved to 4-2. The Cowboys did not score until the third quarter. Their second touchdown came with 44 seconds left, when Prescott found Ryan Flournoy from 6 yards out before a failed two-point try.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Dallas put itself in a hole and that he told his players afterward there is one way out of it. He opened his postgame news conference with the rest of what he told them.
“I’m going to start with what I told the guys. The effort is right. The fight is right. But mistakes are killing us,” Schottenheimer said. “Repeating mistakes is not what we’re about. But we’ve got to protect the football. Five turnovers in two games, not very good. Got to find a running game that starts with myself and the offensive staff.”
“Got to get off the field on third down on defense, whether that’s penalties or just losing one-on-ones,” Schottenheimer continued. “So we got to clean it up and lost two games in a row, haven’t played well. And got to take a hard look at it, and that starts with me.”
Dallas turned it over three times in a 24-16 home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Oct. 8, when Prescott threw 2 interceptions and KaVontae Turpin lost a fumble on a kickoff return. Prescott was intercepted twice more Sunday and finished 34-of-54 for 258 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions.
Green Bay was credited with 7 quarterback hits on Prescott. He said he already knew of plays he made that led directly to a turnover and to Green Bay getting off the field on third and fourth down.
“I’ve just got to simplify the plan, and that starts with me, and really it ends with me,” Prescott said. “You give yourselves a few options on blitz and you get in the game and you want to do this one, you want to do that one. And to me, it’s just I’ve got to be more simple and more direct in exactly what I want to do. And, yeah, I don’t want to get too into it, right, and tell my answers, but it’s definitely fixable.”
Green Bay Packers Convert 9 Of 10 Third Downs Before Halftime
Green Bay took over at its own 10 after the Cowboys’ opening punt and went 90 yards in 14 plays, converting 4 third downs on a drive that took 6:30. Jordan Love hit Christian Watson for 27 yards on third-and-13, Pierre Strong Jr. turned a check-down into 14 yards on another third-and-13, and Love found Matthew Golden for a 9-yard touchdown on third-and-6 with 4:43 left in the first quarter. Golden had a 37-yard catch on the drive pushed back 15 yards by his own taunting penalty.
Linebacker Dee Winters gave Dallas its first opening. With 1:53 left in the quarter, he intercepted a Love pass intended for Golden and was ruled to have returned it 42 yards for a touchdown, but replay showed Golden had touched him down at the Green Bay 42.
The Cowboys reached the Green Bay 17 when CeeDee Lamb caught a 16-yard pass on third-and-3. On second-and-8, linebacker Zaire Franklin came free on a blitz and hit Prescott as he threw incomplete. Safety Evan Williams intercepted Prescott’s next pass, intended for Lamb, at the Green Bay 3 and returned it 17 yards. Williams showed blitz, got out of it, and read Prescott’s eyes the whole way on the play, according to Prescott, who said he was not going to make excuses for the hit he took on the snap before.
“I took a good hit, hit to the ribs. Obviously, yeah, the wind knocked out of me, but I wasn’t coming out of the game,” Prescott said. “Yeah, to me, just give me a second and we can get it back going.”
Schottenheimer said he asked Prescott whether he was OK, got a nod in return, and did not think the hit had anything to do with the interception. Prescott said on his way out of the room that he would be fine and was a little bruised.
Green Bay followed with a 15-play, 73-yard drive that took 8:17. Love kept the ball for 13 yards on third-and-5, Strong ran for 6 on third-and-2, and the Packers had first-and-goal at the 6 before stalling at the 2. A delay-of-game penalty on fourth down moved them back 5 yards, and rookie kicker Trey Smack made a 25-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead with 5:58 left in the half.
Dallas reached the Green Bay 23 on its next possession before a holding penalty on Flournoy wiped out a 9-yard run by Tyler Goodson. Right after the two-minute warning, rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse intercepted a Prescott pass for Lamb, who slipped on the route, and returned it 5 yards. It was the first NFL interception for Cisse, a second-round pick out of South Carolina.
The field at Lambeau has historically been a little slick, and more players slipped as the night went on, Schottenheimer said. Lamb was the intended receiver on both first-half interceptions.
“He’s a warrior. I mean, yeah, he’s a warrior. [He] got the wind knocked out of him, and he’s tough as nails, man, an elite competitor. But, again, we’ve got to be better,” Schottenheimer said. “And then the second one, [CeeDee], he just slips. His run, the slant run, he just slips. But those are areas that we’ve got to clean up.”
Green Bay needed 1:27 to go 77 yards for the last points of the half. Cornerback Joey Porter Jr. was flagged for a 37-yard pass interference penalty on third-and-8, Golden caught a 21-yard pass on third-and-6 to set up first-and-goal at the 2, and a pass interference call on DaRon Bland moved the ball to the 1. Love sneaked in with 23 seconds left for a 17-0 lead.
The Packers outgained Dallas 225-107 in the first half. Schottenheimer said the film review will include where the Cowboys placed their drop players on the third-and-long snaps Green Bay converted.
“We were better in the second half, 9 of 10 in the first half. It’s what they were. So that wasn’t very good. That helped them jump out to a big lead on us,” Schottenheimer said. “We have to look at the coverages. We have to look at the calls.”
“We have to look at the location of some of our drop players because there were some third and longs that they converted,” Schottenheimer continued. “And the first drive kind of, I thought we did a good job getting ahead of the sticks on them and they were able to convert. So we’ve got to figure out why.”
Defensive tackle Kenny Clark, who spent his first nine seasons with Green Bay, said Dallas was physical at the point of attack against the run and set edges. The Packers finished with 57 rushing yards on 26 carries.
“Yeah, especially in the first half. I think that was, like, the story of the game. We just didn’t get them off the field on third down enough,” Clark said. “Got to be better there at the end of the day. Can’t put ourselves in that situation. I think the second half did a little better, but definitely in that first half, they had momentum in that first half with all the third down conversions.”
Dak Prescott Throws 54 Passes As Dallas Cowboys Chase The Deficit
Green Bay went three-and-out to start the second half, and Jonathan Mingo returned the punt 16 yards to the Green Bay 46. Prescott scrambled for 7 yards on third-and-9, and Lamb turned a slant into a 17-yard gain on fourth-and-2. Javonte Williams then carried three straight times from the 11 and scored from 1 yard out with 9:19 left in the third quarter, cutting the lead to 17-7.
The Packers answered with an 11-play, 42-yard drive. Tight end Tucker Kraft converted a fourth-and-3 with a 14-yard catch, and Smack made a 44-yard field goal with 5:02 left in the third quarter for a 20-7 lead. Clark later sacked Love for a 10-yard loss on third-and-2.
Dallas went for it on fourth-and-2 at midfield early in the fourth quarter, and safety Javon Bullard broke up Prescott’s pass for Lamb. Smack’s 29-yard field goal at the 10:06 mark made it 23-7. The rookie went 3-for-3 on the night.
The next Cowboys possession ran 14 plays and ended on downs at the Green Bay 14. Cornerback Carrington Valentine intercepted Prescott near midfield, but Lukas Van Ness was flagged for roughing the passer. Flournoy later caught an 11-yard pass on fourth-and-5 to the Green Bay 12, and a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty on guard Tyler Booker pushed Dallas back to the 27. A roughing call on Karl Brooks gave the Cowboys first-and-10 at the 13, Van Ness sacked Prescott on the next snap, and a fourth-and-11 throw for Lamb fell incomplete with 5:00 to play.
Prescott threw 54 passes, and Dallas ran the ball 15 times for 48 yards. Schottenheimer said the Cowboys have not played a normal game in two weeks, trailing in both, and that runs that crease for big plays are one of the best answers to the blitz.
“I just don’t think we played very well. I think they did a good job. It’s a really good pass defense. I didn’t plan on coming to this game and having to throw it 54 times. That wasn’t the plan,” Schottenheimer said. “It’s not a good recipe against this defense. That’s [been good] against the run and pretty good against the pass. So that wasn’t a good recipe for us.”
“But that’s the way the game turned out and again when I look back at the film, I think we put ourselves in some long yardage situations that were hard,” Schottenheimer continued.
Dallas finally got its second touchdown on a 13-play, 78-yard drive. George Pickens caught a 21-yard pass to the Green Bay 30, a roughing-the-passer penalty on Evan Williams set up first-and-goal at the 6, and Prescott found Flournoy in the end zone on second down. The two-point pass for Lamb fell incomplete, and Brandon Aubrey’s onside kick went out of bounds.
Lamb caught 9 passes for 70 yards on 18 targets. Pickens had 6 catches for 73 yards, Flournoy had 7 catches for 40 yards and 1 touchdown, and Williams ran 11 times for 41 yards and 1 touchdown. Love completed 23-of-41 passes for 276 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception, and he ran 4 times for 12 yards and 1 touchdown. Golden caught 6 passes for 104 yards and 1 touchdown, and Watson had 3 catches for 64 yards.
Safety Caleb Downs led Dallas with 12 tackles. Defensive tackle Quinnen Williams had a sack and 2 tackles for loss, and Dallas sacked Love 3 times. Rashan Gary, who spent seven seasons with Green Bay before a March trade to Dallas, had 3 quarterback hits. Both teams were penalized 11 times, Dallas for 108 yards and Green Bay for 96.
Turpin left after returning the opening kickoff 25 yards and was ruled out in the first quarter. Schottenheimer said Turpin has a rib cartilage injury and that his X-rays were clean. Winters went down with 13:36 left in the second quarter, and Schottenheimer said he has an Achilles strain. Goodson handled kickoff returns in Turpin’s place and had 5 for 122 yards, while Mingo returned 3 punts for 18 yards.
Green Bay scored 6 points after halftime, both on field goals. The defense played a good enough game for Dallas to win, and the offense did not hold its own, according to Prescott, who pointed to the games left on the schedule.
“You lose two games in a row. It doesn’t feel good. We’ve put ourselves in this position. And so, I mean, it’s what, 11 games or something like that left. We just got to take it one at a time,” Prescott said. “We just got to go get a win. And that’s the only way to get to work our way out of this hole and to get momentum going and to get, yeah, just to get the confidence [rolling] on both sides of the ball and special teams included, and we need some good momentum. And the only way to do it is get a win.”
Dallas visits the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday, Oct. 26, at Lincoln Financial Field. Kickoff is set for 7:15 p.m. CT on ESPN and ABC. Philadelphia is also 2-4 after a 25-14 home loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, its fourth straight loss.
