FRISCO, Texas – Coming into the season, the Cowboys offense was their strong suit after a 2025 campaign as one of the best units in the league, with all 11 starters returning.
In the last two weeks however, including Sunday night's 23-13 loss against the Green Bay Packers, the offense has been out of rhythm at times, especially when opposing defenses have brought blitzes.
Defensively, Dallas had their moments, but the Packers were able to convert on 11 of 18 third downs, had 117 yards after catch and scored 23 points to come away with the victory.
Let's take a look back at the film and see what happened on Sunday night at Lambeau:
How Dee Winters got the Cowboys' first interception of the year
It took them six games, but the Cowboys defense finally recorded an interception on Sunday night against Jordan Love and the Packers. It came from linebacker Dee Winters, who is second on the team in tackles and was having what Cowboys coach Brian Schottenhiemer said was "maybe his best game for us" before suffering an Achilles strain.
"The interception was incredible," Schottenheimer said of this play. "He coverage on a double move that they tried to get him on that he was in perfect phase. I thought that was something that was really, really good and it jumped off the film this morning watching the defensive stuff."
Matthew Golden was not an easy cover for Dallas' defense, evident by his six catches for 104 yards and a touchdown (and he could've had two more had it not been for some costly drops). But Winters did an excellent job staying with him throughout the route, times his jump on the ball perfectly, and gets the turnover.
Continued struggles on third down
This was a pretty tough drive for the Cowboys defense at the end of the first half. Green Bay's offense got the ball at their own 23-yard line after Dak Prescott's second interception to Brandon Cisse with 1:50 left to go in the second quarter. Remember, the Cowboys won the opening toss and elected to receive, so the Packers got the ball coming out of halftime.
This play was the third time the Cowboys defense had an opportunity to get the Packers offense off the field on third down. Dallas likely would've had to concede a field goal, but that's much better than giving up seven points and making it a three-possession game. On this 3rd and six play, the Cowboys initially have everything covered well down the field and forced Love out of the pocket.
However, Love has plenty of time to throw here. And he also gained more time to throw by heading to the other side of the field with minimal pressure coming at him. Caleb Downs recognizes that Love is heading the other way, and goes to cover the wide-open tight end in the flat. Him coming up to take the tight end, however, leaves a window behind him that Matthew Golden finds, and Love makes a great throw to get it to him at the two-yard line. The Packers would score two plays later and take a 17-0 lead into the halftime break. It's a tough ask for any secondary to cover that long, and a difficult way to allow a third down conversion with less than a minute to go in the half.
What is going on vs. the blitz on offense?
For the second straight week, the Cowboys offense has struggled to find success passing against blitzes from opposing defenses. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott has been solid against the blitz throughout his career, and has the third-most completions and touchdowns against the blitz among all NFL quarterbacks in the last five seasons.
Packers DC Jonathan Gannon, who had a lot of success against the Cowboys as Cardinals head coach last season, called a great game against Dallas. Here's one example where Dak Prescott couldn't even get through his full drop before a free rusher was in his face after Gannon did a good job disguising where the pressure was coming from.
All three defenders on the left side of the line went back into coverage, which left an overloaded right side with not enough bodies to deal with the pressure that came through. Ultimately, Prescott just has to try and get something completed as it's third down, and it's nearly intercepted by the linebacker that dropped back at the snap. Evidently, the Cowboys need to do a better job of finding where that pressure is coming from and getting to their blitz beaters.
