The Dallas Cowboys don’t run the ball well. Their much-hoped-for defensive turnaround hasn’t materialized.
Unable to count on either, the Cowboys have hinged their playoff hopes for a third straight season on the right arm of quarterback Dak Prescott. The result? Their worst record through six games since 2020.
“The effort is right, the fight is right,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “Mistakes are killing us.”
They continued in a 23-13 loss to Green Bay on “Sunday Night Football” that left the Cowboys 2-4.
As they chase their first playoff berth since 2023, a lone silver lining has been the dreadful state of the NFC East, where the Cowboys aren’t out of contention thanks to the up-and-down struggles of division-leading New York (3-2-1), a rash of injuries in Philadelphia (2-4) and the regression of Washington (1-3-1).
All four teams in the division have a negative scoring differential, the only division this season to do that.
What makes Dallas difficult to count out was seen on the scoring drive that pulled it within 23-13 with 44 seconds to play in Sunday’s fourth quarter, after Prescott led a 13-play, 78-yard drive capped by his scramble away from two tacklers before throwing a touchdown pass on the run.
Prescott’s ability, coupled with receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens — their 862 combined receiving yards entering Sunday were second-most by a duo in the league — left Dallas seventh in the league in points scored entering Week 6.
Yet what makes Dallas difficult to count on was also on display just four minutes earlier in the fourth quarter. Needing 11 yards on fourth down to continue their drive and cut into a 23-7 Packers lead, Prescott narrowly avoided a sack before lofting a pass that sailed out the back of the end zone, not close to any particular Cowboys receiver.
The reliance on Prescott largely paid off to begin this season, as he threw eight touchdowns against just one interception through his first four games. In the last two, though, Prescott has two touchdowns and four interceptions. The latter total doesn’t include an interception Sunday that was negated by a Green Bay penalty for roughing the passer.
Dallas’ defense “played a good enough game for us to go out there and win this,” Prescott said. “We just didn’t hold our own on offense.”
Struggles against Green Bay are nothing new for the Cowboys, who are 1-11-1 in their last 13 meetings against the Packers. Entering Sunday’s game, the Cowboys had allowed at least 30 points in their last six games against Green Bay, the longest streak of any team against Dallas in the franchise’s history.
Yet much of what has ailed Dallas against Green Bay applies to the rest of their opponents, as well, and has left them rarely able to make consistent progress toward becoming a legitimate playoff contender.
Since Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn left to coach Washington in 2023 on the heels of producing the league’s fifth-best defense, the Cowboys have been a defensive sieve, with three different coordinators in as many years. The Cowboys ranked second-to-last in scoring defense in 2024, and dead last last season before hiring Christian Parker, a first-time coordinator at any level, to design a turnaround this fall. The Cowboys memorably stopped wrecking-ball Baltimore running back Derrick Henry twice on fourth-and-short during a Week 3 win; they also have ranked second-to-last in yards allowed, and resorted to hiring the retired defensive coach Mike Pettine last week to help Parker.
When Dallas linebacker Dee Winters picked off Green Bay’s Jordan Love early in the first half by anticipating a route from Matthew Golden, it was the Cowboys’s first interception this season. They were the last team to record one.
Apart from that takeaway, Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love rarely looked bothered. When Dallas pressured Love on more than half of his 44 dropbacks, he completed 11 of his 19 passes, anyway. Though Green Bay’s 23 points were the second-fewest allowed by Dallas this season, the total could have easily been higher, after Packers receiver Matthew Golden dropped what appeared to be two likely touchdown receptions; after one drop, the Packers’ drive stalled and settled for a field goal. The Packers also picked apart Dallas on third down.
They weren’t the only ones to do so, however. Dallas entered Week 6 allowing opponents to convert more than 52% of their third-down opportunities, the league’s highest percentage.
Before his promotion last year to head coach, Schottenheimer helped design the Cowboys’ offense that has leaned heavily on Prescott; on Sunday, he attempted 54 passes, completing 34. But even the passing game that has typically been one of the league’s most productive has generated just 29 total points over its last two games.
“We put ourselves in a hole,” Schottenheimer said. “There’s one way out of it.”