Thoughts on Week 4 (2025): Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys

What an irritating game to witness. Entering Sunday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium, the Green Bay Packers were hoping to bounce back from a shocking 13-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 3. To add a bit of extra hype to this game, it was Micah Parsons’ return to face his former team one month after being traded to Green Bay by Jerry Jones (who still is unable to keep his mouth shut). On the other side, it was the first time that the Packers faced Kenny Clark, who is tough to watch with that dreaded star on his helmet. Rather than this game being an easy win in a stadium that the Packers have never lost in, this game was a back and forth affair until the very end, literally ending in a tie. Without further delay, let’s get into detail on how this game went down.

The Packers started this game on the offensive side of the football. Bo Melton took the opening kickoff to the Green Bay 31 yard line. Early in the drive, the Packers faced a third and 9 after a run by Josh Jacobs went for a loss of 3 yards. On third and 9 from the Green Bay 32, Jordan Love found Matthew Golden for a huge pass play that went for 46 yards to the Dallas 22 yard line. Dontayvion Wicks was there as well, but it was Golden who caught the pass. 3 plays later, Love found Tucker Kraft for a 15 yard catch and run that almost scored a touchdown. After a false start penalty called on Sean Rhyan and a run by Josh Jacobs that went for 3 yards, the Packers faced a second and goal from the 2 yard line. Love threw it up for Romeo Doubs on a goal line fade that actually worked for a touchdown. The extra point kick by Brandon McManus was good, giving Green Bay a 7-0 lead with 10:02 left in the first quarter. The Cowboys took over at their own 28 yard line after the kick return by KaVontae Turpin. After two runs by Javonte Williams, the Cowboys faced a third and 4 from their own 34 yard line. Williams got the ball for a third time only to be stuffed for no gain by Quay Walker. That stop forced Dallas to punt back to Green Bay. The punt was fair caught by Golden at the Green Bay 15 yard line. From there, the Packers tried to add to their score on their next drive. Things started well with a 16-yard pass completion to Romeo Doubs. Two plays later, there was an end around play that Golden took for 5 yards to the Green Bay 43. After an incomplete pass intended for Romeo Doubs, there was a run by Josh Jacobs that would have set up a third and 3 at midfield. Unfortunately, the play was called back due to a holding penalty on Jordan Morgan, which kinda looked ticky-tack to me. After an incomplete pass on second and 18, the Packers faced a third and 18 from the Green Bay 35 yard line. On the third down, Love found Savion Williams for a catch and run that set the Packers up with a fourth and 2 at the Dallas 49 yard line. Rather than go for it, the Packers tried to make the Cowboys jump offsides. That did not work, resulting in a delay of game penalty and a punt back to Dallas. On Dallas’ ensuing drive, which started at their own 11 yard line, they tried the same thing to the Packers defense. That did not work for them either, resulting in a delay of game penalty and a punt back to Green Bay. Matthew Golden took the punt 9 yards to the Green Bay 32 before going out of bounds. From there, the Packers were able to move the ball efficiently for another touchdown. The drive started with a 25 yard catch and run by Emanuel Wilson that brought the Packers into Dallas territory. After two runs by Wilson that went for 6 total yards, the Packers faced a third and 4 at the Dallas 37 yard line. Love took advantage of finding 12 men on Dallas’ defense, even though he threw a pick to Trevon Diggs. Thankfully, the penalty wiped out the pick and gave the Packers a free first down. Later in the drive, a 16-yard pass play to Tucker Kraft was called back due to a holding penalty on Darian Kinnard. 2 plays after the penalty, Josh Jacobs caught a short lateral pass from Love and nearly went all the way for a touchdown. He was ruled out of bounds at the one yard line. On the next play, Romeo Doubs caught his second touchdown of the night. During the extra point attempt, the kick was blocked and returned the other way for 2 points. As a result of that, the score was 13-2 in Green Bay’s favor with a little over 10 and a half minutes left in the second quarter. Due to a holding penalty on the ensuing kickoff return, Dallas’ next drive started at their own 15 yard line. On second and 7, there was an incomplete pass by Dak Prescott that was intended for George Pickens. However, there was a holding penalty that would have forced the Cowboys to face a second and 17. The penalty was declined, and the following third down resulted in a 23 yard pass completion to KaVontae Turpin. Fortunately, the pass was nullified due to a holding penalty. On third and 12, the Packers defense held Hunter Luepke to a 6 yard gain. On the ensuing punt, Golden caught it and almost immediately got hit hard. Thankfully, he was ok and the ball was not fumbled. Two plays into the drive, Matthew Golden caught a short pass and somehow lost 7 yards on the play. At least there was an unnecessary roughness penalty on Dallas, which gave the Packers a free first down. 3 plays later, the drive stalled after an incomplete pass that was intended for Dontayvion Wicks. The ensuing punt was downed by Kingsley Enagbare at the Dallas 5 yard line. Even with that advantageous field position for the Packers defense, they were unable to stop Dallas from driving 95 yards for a touchdown. The 16-play drive was a good example of “death by a thousand paper cuts” as Dallas took over 5 minutes off the clock. The drive ultimately ended with a 2-yard QB draw TD by Prescott. The extra point kick by Brandon Aubrey was good, cutting Green Bay’s lead to 13-9 with 41 seconds left in the half. Rather than just running the rest of the clock out and going into halftime with the lead, the Packers tried to get some points on the board. That did not work as Jordan Love was strip-sacked during the drive. After Dallas recovered the ball at the Green Bay 15, the Cowboys took advantage of the turnover by scoring a touchdown. George Pickens’ 15-yard touchdown catch, plus the extra point by Brandon Aubrey, gave Dallas a 16-13 half-time lead.

The Cowboys had the ball to start the second half and were hoping to add to their lead. After two quick runs by Javonte Williams that totaled 13 yards and gave Dallas a first down, the Cowboys’ drive stalled due to a false start penalty and a couple of incomplete passes. The ensuing punt was caught by Romeo Doubs, who returned it 5 yards to the Green Bay 24. The drive started well with a 14-yard catch and run by Josh Jacobs. 3 plays later, the Packers were trying to convert a third and 1 from the Green Bay 47 yard line. Jordan Love was sacked on the play, but the sack was nullified due to a facemask penalty, keeping the drive alive. On first and 10 from the Dallas 38, Josh Jacobs ran the ball for a 19 yard gain, setting up a first and 10 at the 19 yard line. 2 plays later, Tucker Kraft took a short pass and took it 15 yards for a touchdown. The officials took a look at the replay and somehow ruled Kraft a few inches short of the goal line, which was nonsense to me and many others since the ball clearly touched the pylon. After that debacle of a replay review, the Packers eventually scored a touchdown thanks to Josh Jacobs. The extra point kick by Brandon McManus was good, giving Green Bay a 20-16 lead with a little over 7 minutes left in the third quarter. The lead was short-lived as Dallas went on an 80-yard drive that took 6 and a half minutes off the game clock (the kickoff was ruled a touchback, but since the ball landed in the landing zone and went into the end zone, the touchback gave the Cowboys the ball at the 20 instead of the 35 yard line). This drive was another one where the Cowboys slowly moved the ball down the field and kept Green Bay’s offense on the bench. It did not help that Devonte Wyatt was out for the second half with a knee injury that he suffered in the first half. The long Dallas drive ended with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Dak Prescott to Jake Ferguson that, with the extra point kick by Brandon Aubrey, gave the Cowboys a brief 23-20 lead with a little over 30 seconds left in the third quarter. The reason why I said “brief” was because the Packers went down the field for a touchdown to retake the lead. The 11-play drive started at the Green Bay 30 yard line after the kickoff return by Bo Melton. Three plays into the drive, Jordan Love was able to scramble for a 25-yard gain to the Dallas 37 yard line. Two plays later, Love found Tucker Kraft for a 8-yard pass play that set up a third and 2 at the Dallas 24. Emanuel Wilson got the first down thanks to a 3-yard run. 2 plays later, Josh Jacobs ran it in for an 18-yard touchdown. The extra point was good, giving Green Bay a 27-23 lead with a little over 11 and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter. Once again, the Packers defense was unable to keep Dallas from moving the ball down the field and scoring another touchdown. The 17-play drive started at the Dallas 23 yard line after the kick return by KaVontae Turpin. From there, it was yet another time-consuming drive as Dallas was successful in scoring another touchdown. The drive, which lasted nearly 7 minutes, ended with a 1-yard TD run by Javonte Williams that (with the extra point) gave the Cowboys a 30-27 lead with less than 5 minutes left in regulation. The ensuing kickoff landed in the landing zone then to the end zone for a touchback, giving Green Bay the ball at their own 20 yard line. From there, the Packers offense went to work trying to retake the lead. On third and 8, Jordan Love found Romeo Doubs for an 18 yard pass play that kept the drive alive. After an incomplete pass on first down, Love found Emanuel Wilson for a short pass that went for 13 yards to the Dallas 47 yard line. 2 plays later, an incomplete pass was nullified thanks to an unnecessary roughness penalty that gave the Packers a free first down at the 29 yard line. 3 plays later, Romeo Doubs caught his third touchdown of the night on a great throiw by Jordan Love. The extra point was good, giving the Packers a 34-30 lead with less than two minutes left in the game. What did not help the Packers defense was that the ensuing kickoff return by Turpin went to the Dallas 46 yard line. There was also an intentional grounding penalty that was not called at all despite the throw by Dak Prescott being nowhere near a receiver. 3 plays after that non-call, Prescott found George Pickens for a 28 yard touchdown that, with the extra point, gave Dallas a 37-34 lead with 43 seconds left in regulation. 8 seconds were taken off the clock thanks to the kickoff return by Savion Williams that went to the Green Bay 26 yard line. The Packers quickly got to Dallas territory thanks to a 25-yard catch and run by Josh Jacobs, who got out of bounds to stop the clock with 28 seconds left. After an incomplete pass on first and 10 (defensed by Kenny Clark), Love found Malik Heath for a 9-yard completion. Heath got out of bounds to stop the clock at 17 seconds. After that, the Packers just went for the tie and set up Brandon McManus for a 53-yard field goal. The kick was good, tying the game at 37-37 and sending it to overtime. The Packers won the OT coin toss, but decided to kick it since both teams are now guaranteed a possession in overtime (unless a turnover results in points for the defense). A holding penalty kept the Cowboys from having another big kickoff return. From their own 20, the Cowboys tried their best to get a touchdown to open up the extra period. Javonte Williams started the drive with an 11 yard run. After a couple of plays that only resulted in 5 yards, Prescott found Pickens for a 22-yard pass play that got Dallas into Green Bay territory. Two plays later, Prescott threw a pass that I thought was going to be out of bounds. Instead, Jalen Tolbert caught the pass at the Green Bay 5 yard line with nobody near him. Keisean Nixon was nowhere near getting his hands on the ball. In fact, he gave up on the play thinking that the ball was going out of bounds. Two plays later, Micah Parsons saved a potential TD run by getting Prescott down for a 0-yard sack. On the following play, Parsons pressured Dak to throw it away. Brandon Aubrey was then called upon to kick the 22-yard field goal, which he made. That kick gave Dallas a 40-37 lead with 4:40 left in OT. After the ensuing kickoff landed in the landing zone and went to the end zone for a touchback, the Packers started their OT drive at their own 20. They had to convert a fourth and 6 from the 24 yard line, which they did thanks to a pass completion to Matthew Golden that went for 14 yards. Two runs by Emanuel Wilson gave the Packers a first and 10 at the Dallas 40. After the two minute warning, the drive continued. Dontayvion Wicks caught a pass from Love and got out of bounds at the Dallas 25 yard line. After a 6-yard catch by Doubs and a 7-yard run by Wilson, the Packers had first and 10 at the Dallas 12 yard line with 1:32 left in OT. At this point, the Packers should have saved the timeout and went for the end zone. What happened next was atrocious in terms of play calling and clock management. On first and 10, Love threw a screen pass to Golden that went for a loss of three yards (Romeo messed up on the block there). Due to that bad play, the Packers had to use their second and final timeout of the extra period. After another pass that went for negative yardage, the Packers wasted precious time before getting another play off with 6 seconds left. Love nearly got the touchdown pass to Golden, but the pass went incomplete. Rather than go for the touchdown with one second left, Green Bay sent the field goal unit out. The kick was good, ending the game at a 40-40 tie, which made me irritated to no end. With the tie, the Packers’ record is not 2-1-1 entering the bye week.

(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Click on “Watch on YouTube” if you’re curious)

On offense, the Packers did their best to catch up with Dallas, who was also able to score a lot of points on Sunday night. Yes, there were a couple of bad drives, including ones that ended in a punt and the one that ended with a strip-sack, but Jordan Love and the offense was able to light up a defense led by former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus. 2 of their first 3 drives ended in touchdowns, then (after a lull in the second quarter), they were able to score on every possession in the second half and OT. Jordan Love had a great night as he threw for 337 yards and 3 touchdowns and finished the night with a 118.1 passer rating. All 3 of Love’s passing touchdowns went to Romeo Doubs, who finished with 6 catches for 58 yards (including those 3 touchdowns). Josh Jacobs caught 4 passes for 71 yards, including that catch and run that set up Doubs’ 2nd TD catch. Jacobs also added 86 yards and 2 scores on 22 rushing attempts, despite him dealing with a knee issue during the game. Emanuel Wilson played good on Sunday night, finishing with 81 total yards (44 rushing, 37 receiving). I felt bad for Tucker Kraft on Sunday night. He was so close to scoring on two occasions, including the one that was initially ruled a touchdown before the refs said no (by the way, Ron Tolbert is an awful official). Matthew Golden caught 5 balls for 58 yards, including a long catch during the first drive and the 14-yarder that saved the OT drive from being over. The offensive line did better than last week in terms of keeping Love upright, outside of the strip sack and a few penalties (hopefully Zach Tom comes back after the bye week). Love was not the happiest at the end of the game because he should have gave the Packers a dramatic win at AT&T Stadium. He was basically on fire during the second half and OT, but conservative play calling and bad clock management by Matt LaFleur kept that from happening. There was no need for cute short passes when they were in the red zone in the final moments of overtime. Romeo Doubs messed up on the block during the screen pass to Golden, which was eaten up by Trevon Diggs. Even after Love threw incomplete to Golden, he should have been given an opportunity for a last second victory. Instead, LaFleur coached scared and sent the field goal unit out to end the game in an irritating tie. This conservative approach of not embarrassing lesser opponents needs to stop after the bye week. Love is able to do great things with the football in his hands, and that can’t be wasted in the future. At least Love and the offense could get Christian Watson back soon. Hopefully that ends up great for the whole offense.

On defense, the Packers were not at their best on Sunday night against the Cowboys. Entering the game, the Cowboys were without their best receiver in Ceedee Lamb, who was out due to an ankle sprain. In addition to that, the Cowboys’ offensive line had some backups playing. Micah Parsons and the rest of the pass rush was itching to get after Dak Prescott. What ended up happening was Dak being able to get rid of the ball quickly and throwing for over 300 yards on the night (319 to be exact). 134 of those yards and 2 of Dak’s touchdowns went to George Pickens, who is sometimes known to crash out. For Dallas’ sake, Pickens kept his cool and torched the Packers defense. Micah was able to pressure Dak plenty of times, but was unable to bring him down to the ground until overtime. That play was huge as it prevented him from scoring a second TD run. Micah also pressured Dak to throw the ball away on the following play, which forced Dallas to settle for 3 points. After the game, Micah told Jordan Love that he is sorry for the defense letting Love down in that game. He is not wrong there, as the Packers defense surrendered 38 points on Sunday night (the other 2 were from the blocked PAT that I’ll discuss shortly). There were too many instances of the Cowboys accomplishing long drives that kept Green Bay’s offense on the bench. I was disappointed in the amount of open receivers and missed tackles on Sunday night. That stuff has to be cleaned up during the bye week, which i am thankful for due to multiple injuries, including a knee injury suffered by Devonte Wyatt and the back issue that kept Parsons from playing every defensive snap. I am sure that Parsons and the pass rush was also frustrated by the amount of holding that the Cowboys offensive linemen got away with. Hopefully Jeff Hafley and the rest of the defensive coaches help the players get better after the bye week.

Once again, Rich Bisaccia’s special teams unit messed up. Luke Musgrave was somehow in the field goal protection unit on the PAT after the second TD catch by Romeo Doubs. That particular kick got blocked and brought back the other way for 2 points in Dallas’ favor. I really think that the block changed the game in a big way. If things went normally and the kick went through the uprights, I had a feeling that the Packers would have had an easier time with the game. Instead, the blocked kick and the two points gave the Cowboys the momentum they needed to keep the game close to the very end. There were a couple of kickoff returns that went for big yardage in Dallas’ favor, including the one that nearly went to midfield near the end of regulation. On Green Bay’s side, I was relieved that no returns were messed up due to a penalty. The Packers need to find someone other than Matthew Golden to return punts after Golden got rocked on one of them. To be fair, they fixed some of the things after the fact, including field goal blocking and the punt return situation. Brandon McManus made every kick (other than the one that got blocked), including the 53-yarder that sent the game to OT and the short one that tied the game at the end (still irritated at that decision). Daniel Whelan only punted twice (thankfully), averaging 41.5 yards per attempt. On the whole though, this unit needs to be fine-tuned and fixed to not have it cost the Packers any more games this season.

Overall, I was not happy with the way the game ended. The Packers had a great chance to win the game outright in both the fourth quarter and in OT. Both times, they settled for the tie. To me, that was basically coaching not to lose, which is never a good thing. When you have an opponent that is significantly weaker than you, it is a great opportunity to blow them out and not give them a sliver of an opportunity to be in the game. Twice now, including the loss to the Browns last week, the Packers under Matt LaFleur allowed lesser opponents to hang around and make it a back and forth contest. While the game against Cleveland was a defensive struggle, the one against the Cowboys became a back and forth game where it seemed that the last team who had the ball wins the game. That should’ve been the case for the Packers against the Cowboys, but being a coward allowed the game to end in a tie. Starting with Week 6 at Lambeau Field against the Bengals (who don’t have Joe Burrow due to a toe injury), the Packers can’t allow these kinds of games to be close. Matt LaFleur and the entire coaching staff better use the bye week to fix a whole bunch of stuff for the Packers to get back on the path towards a Lombardi Trophy. I’ll be back for the recap of the game against Cincinnati, which hopefully ends with a big win. In the meantime, I hope that the Packers get healthier during the week off. Have a great week, everyone. Go Pack Go.