After a mostly promising start, the Green Bay Packers defense faces its most daunting test of the season so far as the Dallas Cowboys come to town.
Sunday night will be a litmus test for how good Jonathan Gannon’s group really is and whether they can hang with the types of elite offenses they will see should they make the playoffs.
Here are three things Green Bay must do to hold up their end of the bargain on defense on Sunday night:
Limit possessions
The best way to defend the Cowboys offense is to keep them off the field. This is not something the defense has control over, and will instead fall on Matt LaFleur, Jordan Love and the Packers offense.
Possessing the ball for long periods has been a struggle for Green Bay this season, in no small part due to the lack of running game. Drives have often ended quickly whether that means an explosive play for a touchdown or a three-and-out.
The Packers are 32nd in average time per drive this year. The Cowboys are sixth and lead the league in both plays and yards per drive.
The solution is to give them as few possessions as possible, and hopefully Green Bay can continue on from last week where they were more regularly able to mount longer drives. The Dallas defense has been awful early in the season, so they have a chance to repeat that recipe.
Win early downs against the run
There are not many areas where the Cowboys offense looks weak, but they are 21st in run stuff rate, and the Packers defense is stuffing runs at the fifth-highest rate in the league.
Defending the likes of CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens in the passing game is hard enough when you know what’s coming. Doing so when the playbook is open and Dallas could run or pass is borderline impossible.
If the Packers can stop the run on first and second down, and put Dak Prescott into obvious passing situations, they will stand more of a chance of getting off the field.
Capitalize on mistakes
Prescott does not really have a statistical kryptonite. He is good against man coverage and zone coverage, single-high and two-high, it does not really matter whether you blitz or not either.
However, he has a poor record against the Packers, and part of that is because of turnovers. In his three career losses to Green Bay, he has thrown a combined six interceptions.
If the Packers can force Prescott into a big mistake, they absolutely must take advantage of it. Interceptions cannot be dropped in this game, and forced fumbles must be recovered. That one play could be the difference between winning and losing in what looks like a shootout on paper.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: 3 keys for Packers offense vs. Cowboys defense: Capitalize on mistakes