The Packers placed defensive tackles Jonathan Ford and Javon Hargrave, along with wide receiver Skyy Moore, on the injured reserve list. They activated wide receiver Savion Williams off the injured reserve/designated to return list.
The Packers elevated wide receiver Coleman Owen and Edge player Arron Mosby from the practice squad. Owen has a history of returning punts and kickoffs. He operates mostly out of the slot when on offense, according to his scouting report. Mosby provides depth at Edge, especially if the Packers want to move Van Ness inside since there are only 4 defensive tackles on the 48-man active roster.
Cornerback Benjamin St. Juste was inactive due to injury. LG Aaron Banks (knee/toe) is also inactive: he was listed as questionable, so it is unclear whether he was inactive due to injury or if he was a healthy scratch. OG Jacob Monk and Donovan Jennings were healthy scratches.
Player Snaps
Tomlinson 75
Rhyan 75
Morgan 75
Belton 75
Glover 75
Zeitler
Williams
Becton
The Packers gained 45 yards on 22 carries, a 2.05-yard average per carry, with a long of 6. Pro Football Focus liked Jordan Morgan (73.1 overall grade), but the Packers could not run left. They could not run right or up the middle, either. The inability to threaten on the ground throws the entire onus of the offense on the passing game. That is not going to work against a complete team. The Packers had a -0.15 EPA per carry.
Kevin Zeitler stayed on the bench. I thought giving Glover another start was the right thing to do from a team-buillding stance, as he is young and under contract for 2027, and he has shown a world of improvement. I hesitate to remove Laken Tomlinson, but something has to give. While all of the linemen getting snaps deserve to be in the NFL, they are not good players. Zeitler has played the majority of his career at right guard, but he does have some experience playing left guard. Still, it might be that he is a right guard only. Coach LaFleur has to at least look at adding Zeitler to the mix.
The pass protection overall was pretty bad. Love was hit 8 times and sacked three times, per ESPN. I thiought he hit the ground many more times. Morgan allowed 2 pressures (1 QB hit and a hurry). Glover allowed 3 hurries. Sean Rhyan allowed 2 sacks. Tomlinson and Belton each allowed 3 hurries. Kraft allowed 3 pressures (1 QB hit and 2 hurries) in just 4 pass blocking snaps. The ball still came out relatively fast at 2.65 seconds on average. The NFL average is about 2.86 seconds. The announcers indicated that Love faced pressure on 48% of his dropbacks, a very high number.
Rhyan allowed 2 sacks. With the Packers up 17-0, Rhyan had a holding penalty on the first play of the second half. The Packers could not overcome 1st and 20 and had to punt. That was a drive that really could have deflated the Cowboys. Rashan Gary had 10 pressures in 28 pass rushing snaps, an absolutely enormous 35.7% pressure rate. Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark each had 3 pressures and posted pressure rates north of 10%, which is good for interior defensive linemen. If Aaron Banks can practice for multiple days straight, Coach LaFleur will have to consider a guard tandem of Banks and Zeitler.
Player Snaps Routes
Kraft 58 33/8/0
Redman 25 7/0/0
Whyle 17 9/0/0
Smith 9 2/0/0
Kraft caught all 5 of 8 targets for 37 yards with a long of 14. His pass blocking was bad. He broke one tackle but had a drop. No other tight end received a target despite running 18 routes. Redman only had one snap pass blocking. The game plan apparently was to attack the Cowboys with Watson and Golden. The Packers played 1.45 TEs on average.
Player Snaps
Love 75
Taylor DNP
Love completed 23 of 41 attempts (56.1%) for 267 yards (6.73 yards per attempt) with 1 touchdowns and 1 interception. He finished with an 74.8 passer rating. He averaged 10.1 yards of Adot. A reasonable person could make an argument that 8 of Love's passes were dropped: 3 by Golden, 2 by Watson, 2 by Strong, and 1 by Kraft. Love threw 2 turnover-worthy passes per PFF, one of which was actually intercepted and another that was close. I think there were 3 passes that could easily have been intercepted. That said, it was a tremendous outing by Love. There was no time for scanning the field; it was mostly first read and then maybe a second read. Love got his pre-snaps reads correct most of the time.
Player Snaps Routes
Strong 41 10/2//10
Lloyd 30 16/4/5
Johnson 4 0/0/7
Pierre Strong gained 28 yards on 11 carries, a 2.55-yard average. He caught 5 of 6 targets for 39 yards. He broke a couple of tackles on two of his receptions to convert longish third downs into first downs. He allowed no pressures in 3 pass blocking snaps. Lloyd gained 10 yards on 8 carries. He had 1 target but no receptions. He allowed no pressures in 2 pass blocking snaps. Kaleb Johnson gained negative 2 yards on his only carry. I thought Strong was going to score a touchdown on a run up the middle and was surprised when he came up short.
Player Snaps Routes
Watson 66 40/8/0
Golden 63 41/13/0
Williams 40 27/4/2
Melton 18 11/0/0
Sturdivant 4 2//0/0
Owen
Matthew Golden caught 6 of 13 targts for 104 yards and a touchdown with a long of 37. He dropped 2 passes, 3 if one is a harsh grader. One of the drops was a long bomb that would have been a touchdown. That said, he was really torching the Dallas secondary all game. He was open a lot. 5 of his receptions were good for first downs. Christian Watson caught 3 of his 8 targets for 64 yards with a long of 28. Watson converted 3 completions into first downs. He dropped a couple, too. Savion Williams caught all 4 of his targets for 32 yards, an 8-yard average. He gained 9 yards on 2 carries. Savion provided a little spark to the offense, at least early in the game. Melton and Sturdivant had no receptions. Melton ran 11 routes.
Defense:
Player Snaps
Brooks 47
Wyatt 46
McClellan 40
Campbell 32
Brooks had 3 tackles (2 solo) including a tackle for loss. He missed a tackle, though it was an arm tackle. Brooks had a sack erased by a bogus roughing penalty. McClellan and Campbell each had 1 solo tackle. Wyatt had 1 assisted tackle. McClellan and Brooks each had 1 pressure. Campbell had no pressures in 23 pass rushing snaps. The Cowboys gained only 48 yards on 15 carries, a 3.2-yard average. McClellan had to play the nose with Ford and Hargrave on injured reserve. The Cowboys entered the game having averaged 27.6 points per game. A short-handed defensive line did their part in a really good defensive effort.
Player Snaps
Van Ness 43
Sorretll 40
Cox 39
DDS 36
Van Ness had 3 tackles (2 solo), 1 sack and 1 quarterback hits., He had 5 pressures in 29 pass rushing snaps, good for a 17.2% pressure rate. That is not bad, and it would have been better except for a roughing penalty. He also had a neutral zone infraction, something he seems to have a problem with. Sorrell played a lot more snaps. He responded with 3 tackles (2 solo), one of which was a tackle for loss, and 2 QB hits. He also had 29 pass rushing snaps, which translates to a pedestrian 10.3% pressure rate. Brenton Cox had 1 assisted tackle and 2 pressures in 21 pass rushing snaps (9.5%). Dennis-Sutton had 1 QB hit. PFF credited him with 3 pressures in 21 pass rushing snaps (14.3% pressure rate). He had a sack that would have ended a Dallas drive erased by his own taunting penalty. The Cowbows took 2.86 seconds from snap to throw on average, which is about league average
These are not good pressure rates. Much of the pressure that they got was due to the secondary covering receivers very well.
Player: Snaps
Franklin 78
McDuffie 43
Hopper 33
Niemann 0
Franklin had 3 tackles (3 solo) and 1 QB hit. And what a QB hit it was. PFF listed him with allowing 11 yards on 1 target. Zaire Franklin may not do everything a coach would like, but he plays and hits hard. It looked like McDuffie and Hopper rotated in. McDuffie allowed 4 of 6 targets to be completed for 24 yards and a 74 passer rating. He had 1 pressure in 12 pass rushing snaps. Hopper had 5 tackles (3 solo) and a pass defensed. He allowed 2 of 3 targets to be completed for 15 yards and a 75 passer rating. He was called for holding on 3rd and 20 but that call was also bogus.
Player Snaps
Williams 78
McKinney 78
Bullard 67
Nixon 78
Cisse 54
Valentine 26
Olapado 0
Hadden 0
Williams had 6 tackles (5 solo) with a pass defensed and a QB hit. He allowed 1 of 2 targets to be completed for 7 yards, intercepting the other target. That is good for a 56 passer rating allowed. Williams is solid in all phases of the game. Nixon had 8 solo tackles. He played a physical game. He allowed 9 of 13 targets to be completed but for just 55 yards, good for an 77 passer rating allowed. That is against Cee Dee Lamb and George Pickens. Once again, Nixon is better than fans give him credit for. The Packers were often giving help to the cornerback that drew Lamb but the other cornerback often was on an island against Pickens, who did little, and what little Pickens did came late. Cisse had 4 solo tackles, and 2 passes defensed plus a big interception. He allowed 3 of 8 targets to be completed for 30 yards, good for an 9.4 passer rating allowed. Valentine had 4 tackles (3 solo) and a pass defensed. He had an interception wiped out by someone else's penalty. He allowed 3 of 4 targets to be completed for 35 yards, a 101 passer rating allowed. Bullard had 6 tackles (4 solo) and 3 passes defensed. He allowed 7 of 10 targets to be completed for 53 yards and a touchdown. He allowed a passer rating of 115.8, but the touchdown he allowed probably should have been offensive pass interference. McKinney had 3 tackles (2 solo) tackles and a QB hit. He allowed 2 of 3 targets to be completed for 14 yards, a 77 passer rating allowed.
SPECIAL TEAMS:
Smack made both extra points and all 3 of his field goals, with a long of 44 yards. Whelan punted 3 times for 151 (50.3-yard average) with a long of 55. Coleman Owen made a fair catch and returned a punt for 16 yards. Christian Welch and Niemann are excellent on special teams.
Did I mention that the referees were brutally bad in this game?
DL: 2.12
LB: 1.97
Edge: 2.03
DB: 4.88
TE: 1.45 (down from 1.61 last week)
RB: 1.00
WR: 2.55 (Up from 2.39 last week but less than season-long norms)
Photo courtesy of Jeff Hanisch, Reuters US Sports Pictures
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