Packers vs. Cowboys: Jordan Love and a Blitz-Happy Defense Pick Off Dak Prescott in Week 6

Dak Prescott got the Cowboys inside the Green Bay 30 on back-to-back second-quarter possessions. Both trips ended with a guy in a green jersey holding the football. That is how one of the league's scariest offenses spent Sunday night at Lambeau Field: lots of throws, lots of flags, almost nothing that hurt.

Green Bay won 23-13 under the lights, with Jordan Love throwing a touchdown pass and running for another as the Packers stretched their winning streak to three. They are 4-2. Dallas is 2-4, and its head coach is not pretending otherwise.

A 17-0 Half Built on Picks and Third Downs

The Packers set the tone with a 14-play, 90-yard opening march. Matthew Golden ripped off a 37-yard catch and promptly handed 15 yards back with a taunting flag, Pierre Strong Jr. erased it by turning a third-and-13 throw into a 14-yard gain, and Love hit Golden for a 9-yard touchdown three snaps later.

Then came the night's strangest sequence. Love threw an interception to Dee Winters, Dallas' first pick of the season, and Winters popped up and raced 42 yards for what looked like a pick-six, until replay showed Golden had touched him while he was still on the ground. Six snaps later, on third-and-8 from the Green Bay 17, Evan Williams jumped a Prescott throw for CeeDee Lamb at the 3.

Green Bay followed with a 15-play, 73-yard grind that burned 8:17 and ended in a 25-yard Trey Smack field goal. Dallas pushed back into range on its next trip, and rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse cut in front of Lamb at the 18 for the first interception of his career, per the team.

The Packers then went 77 yards in 1:27. A 37-yard pass-interference flag and a 21-yard dart to Golden set up Love's own 1-yard keeper with 23 seconds left, and it was 17-0 at the half. Per the AP, Dallas had not been held scoreless in a first half since Nov. 7, 2021.

The Cowboys finally broke through on a 1-yard Javonte Williams run midway through the third, but Smack answered with kicks of 44 and 29 yards. Dallas then turned it over on downs on consecutive possessions in the fourth: a fourth-and-2 near midfield that Javon Bullard broke up, and a fourth-and-11 incompletion from the Green Bay 14 with about five minutes to go. Prescott's 6-yard touchdown to Ryan Flournoy with 44 seconds left and a failed two-point try to Lamb only set the final.

Love Shrugs Off the Drops, Golden Shrugs Off Everything

Love finished 23 of 41 for 276 yards with a touchdown and an interception, and the Packers say he was sacked three times and hit eight times. The AP counted three more potential touchdown passes that were dropped: Golden lost a 43-yarder and could not finish a 23-yarder in the second quarter, and Christian Watson could not hang on to a 26-yarder in the third that Dallas' Malachi Lawrence deflected in the end zone. On the 23-yarder, the Lambeau fireworks went off early, with officials still waving the pass incomplete. Never change, Lambeau.

Love did not sulk. "I want to make every throw," Love said. "I want these guys to make every catch. That's the expectation. Stuff happens. Drops happen."

Golden still caught six of 13 targets for 104 yards and the score. The Packers note it was his third straight home game with 100-plus receiving yards, something no Green Bay receiver had done since Davante Adams in 2021. His confidence is undefeated.

"For me, I'm not going to be too down about it because I know 10 times out of 10 I'm going to make those plays," Golden said.

The real stars wore defensive colors. Coordinator Jonathan Gannon, without Micah Parsons and linebacker Edgerrin Cooper (both on reserve lists, per the Packers), threw disguises and blitzes at Prescott all night. Prescott went 34 of 54 for 258 yards, a sad 4.8 yards per attempt, and the Packers say only one of his completions went longer than 17 yards. Lamb caught nine balls for 70 yards on 18 targets. Bullard posted a career-high three pass breakups, and Zaire Franklin's delayed blitz set up Evan Williams' pick with a thunderous hit on Prescott a snap earlier.

Two Picks and a Third-Down Glow-Up

The game turned on those two second-quarter interceptions. Dallas came away with nothing on both drives, while Green Bay turned the takeaways into a field goal and a touchdown. That is 10 points in a game decided by 10.

The other quiet killer: third down. Green Bay entered the night converting a league-low 27.6% of its third downs. Then the Packers converted their first seven, a team best to start a game going back to at least 1978, and went 9 of 10 before halftime, per the team. That is not a hot streak. That is a personality transplant.

"We're in a hole," Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said. "(We) put ourselves there. There's one way out of it."

The Numbers That Tell It

• 11 of 18: Green Bay on third down for the game.
• 22: Penalties, 11 per team. Dallas lost 108 yards to flags, Green Bay 96.
• 3: Straight games allowing 14 points or fewer, Green Bay's first such run since 2016, per the AP.
• 11-1-1: Green Bay's record in its last 13 meetings with Dallas.

Green Bay Is Rolling, Dallas Is Searching

After a 1-2 start that included a three-touchdown home loss to Atlanta, the Packers have rattled off wins over Tampa Bay, Chicago and now Dallas. They sit tied with the Bears for second in the NFC North behind undefeated Minnesota, per the team, with a trip to Detroit up next. The one real warning light is the run game: 57 yards on 26 carries against a Dallas defense that came in as the league's worst against the run, per the Packers.

Dallas' defense, which entered allowing a league-high 6.4 yards per play, according to the AP, held Green Bay to 4.5. But an offense that hung 37, 31 and 34 on opponents in Weeks 2 through 4 has managed 16 and 13 the last two weeks, and a trip to Philadelphia on Oct. 26 is not exactly a spa day.

"We need some good momentum," Prescott said. "And the only way to do it is to get a win."

Living Right in the Secondary

Bullard, explaining the takeaway spree, sounded less like a defensive back and more like a wellness influencer.

"If the ball is consciously on your mind, I think it finds you," Bullard said. "You living right, the ball is going to find you."

Somewhere, a self-help author is drafting a chapter on the Green Bay secondary.

Stats from the official box score and play-by-play via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press and packers.com.