Lambeau Exposed the Same Old Mistakes: 54 Passes, 48 Rushing Yards and a 2-4 Hole Before Monday Night in Philadelphia

By Jake "Star" Whitfield, RF Sports Radio Cowboys voice

Cowboys Nation, I said Lambeau would grade the week. It did. The grade is not good. Dallas walked into Green Bay with a new defensive structure and walked out 2-4, two straight losses deep, with the head coach saying the quiet part out loud: the mistakes are repeating.

The facts

The Green Bay Packers beat the Cowboys 23-13 on Sunday night, Oct. 18, at Lambeau Field, per Packers.com and the AP. Green Bay led 17-0 at halftime and 23-7 in the fourth quarter before Dak Prescott hit Ryan Flournoy for a 6-yard touchdown with 44 seconds left. The two-point try failed and Brandon Aubrey's onside kick went out of bounds. The Packers improved to 4-2 with their third straight win.

Prescott finished 34-of-54 for 258 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Dallas ran for just 48 yards on 15 carries, gained 303 total yards, was pressured 21 times, and committed 11 penalties for 108 yards, per DallasCowboys.com. Green Bay converted 11 of 18 third downs. The defense did hold the Packers to 57 rushing yards with three sacks. Javonte Williams scored on a 1-yard run, and CeeDee Lamb's nine catches for 70 yards moved him past Tony Hill into third on the franchise receiving list.

Brian Schottenheimer did not dodge it: "The effort is right, the fight is right, but mistakes are killing us," he said, adding, "We're in a hole, we put ourselves there." Injury notes: KaVontae Turpin hurt his rib cartilage on the opening kickoff and did not return, and CBS Sports reports he is likely to miss Week 7. Linebacker Dee Winters suffered an Achilles strain. On Monday, Schottenheimer said cornerback Cobie Durant (hamstring) is "trending to play" next Monday night at Philadelphia against the 2-4 Eagles.

RF Sports Radio's take (opinion)

My take: the defense was not the problem Sunday, and that is a sentence I did not expect to type this month. Fifty-seven rushing yards allowed is real progress after the Tampa Bay mess. The problem is an offense that cannot stay on schedule. Fifteen runs and 54 pass attempts is not a game plan, it is a hostage situation. Schottenheimer admitted he did not plan to throw it 54 times. Then fix the first half so you never have to.

The third-down defense is the other leak. Eleven of 18 for Green Bay means drives that never end and a Dallas offense that sits on the bench getting cold. Add 108 penalty yards and you get exactly what we saw: a team that fights hard and plays sloppy.

My call: Dallas goes to Philadelphia with Durant back, leans on the run early, and wins an ugly one, 20-17, to get to 3-4. That is a prediction, not a report. If the Cowboys turn it over twice again, the NFC East stops being a conversation.

What to watch next

Watch Wednesday's first injury report for Durant, Turpin, Winters and DeMarvion Overshown, and whether the run-game snaps go up. The extra day of prep before Monday night helps. For the pre-Lambeau setup, read our Oct. 16 Cowboys column on Parker, Pettine and the Lambeau setup, and follow every update on the Dallas Cowboys page.

Radio question: is the Cowboys' biggest problem the play-calling, the protection, or the penalties — and which one gets fixed first in Philadelphia?

Sources: Packers.com — Packers defeat Cowboys, 23-13; DallasCowboys.com — Schottenheimer says 'execution wasn't clean enough'; DallasCowboys.com — Updates: Durant, Turpin, Winters, Lamb; CBS Sports — Turpin likely to miss Week 7; AP News — Packers beat Cowboys 23-13.