After a “mini-bye,” the Dallas Cowboys are preparing for another primetime matchup.
The Dallas Morning News’ columnists and beat writers offered up their predictions for the Week 6 matchup at Lambeau Field below:
Cowboys do not have a rich history at Lambeau Field (or against the Packers at home, for that matter) but Dallas’ ability to run the ball on Green Bay should keep this game interesting into the fourth quarter. Atlanta ran for 242 yards at Lambeau weeks ago. The scary part for Dallas is that Jordan Love is coming off a 367-yard passing day against Chicago and licking his chops while looking at the only defense yet to intercept a pass this season. Joey Porter Jr. to the rescue? Maybe not.
Good news, Cowboys fans: I’ve been wrong on most of my Cowboys game predictions this year, so there’s hope! But seriously: this team keeps us on our toes, especially after losing last week to Tampa Bay. I foresee another close loss to Green Bay.
In the last seven meetings between these teams, the winner has scored more than 30 points. That includes last season’s 40-40 tie at AT&T Stadium. The Cowboys are just as lost on defense as last season, if not more, so expect another high-scoring game. You never know what you’re going to get with these Cowboys, but it’s difficult to see them coming out on top Sunday night. They’ll have to play a perfect game on offense.
The Cowboys’ best chance to beat the Packers is to turn this into a shootout. Even then, it’s difficult to envision Dallas’ defense coming up with the late stop needed to secure a victory. The Cowboys’ defense remains the team’s biggest weakness and a major reason it continues to tread water in the mediocre NFC East. If Dak Prescott fails to match Jordan Love score for score, Dallas could find itself in trouble early and chasing the game all night.
Now that Jerry Jones has officially signaled that Christian Parker isn’t yet who they thought he was and this is going to take longer than he’d hoped, let’s officially put to bed any crazy predictions from yours truly that an NFC title game run is in the offing. The Cowboys will be lucky to win nine games. This won’t be one of them.
All the defensive moves by the Cowboys this week won’t help against the Packers. The defense has trouble stopping people, and do you believe Christian Watson and Matthew Golden will be slowed down by the Cowboys’ secondary? The Cowboys will need big games from CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens to make this a contest. The run game has to show up, too.