Cowboys, Pack set for rebound battle
ARLINGTON, Texas — Dak Prescott and the Cowboys want to get their offense back to what it was doing before a sputtering loss that slowed their best start in more than a decade.
Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are looking for a repeat of their best offensive showing — but this time in a win when nearly 500 yards wasn’t good enough.
The division leaders — the visiting Packers (3-1) are tied with the Bears atop the NFC North — meet Sunday with the same goal: Answer a loss with a victory so they can still feel the momentum of opening with three straight wins.
“As we’ve shown obviously early on struggling on offense with our defense playing really well, managing the game and taking care of the football was what helped us win those early games,“said Rodgers, who had his eighth 400-yard game in last week’s 34-27 home loss to the Eagles.
“Last week, we needed to outscore them, and we didn’t get the job done. So it’s on the offense to be a lot better situationally.”
In a 12-10 road loss to the Saints, the Cowboys (3-1) were held to 257 yards, barely half of what they rolled up in each of their wins while scoring more than 30 points each time.
Tight end Jason Witten and running back Ezekiel Elliott had fumbles that helped contribute to the first halftime deficit of the season, and Prescott made a critical mistake taking a sack on the first play of the final drive, when they ran out of time needing only a field goal to win.
“We know the potential of this team, we know how good we can be and we can’t focus necessarily on what the record is,” Prescott said. “You take the good, you take the bad, you live and learn from it and you get better because of it.”
The Packers will be without top receiver Davante Adams, who had his career-high 180 yards receiving against the Eagles before injuring a toe in the second half.
Run away, run away
The Cowboys had 45 yards rushing against the Saints, their fewest since the second game of Elliott’s second season in 2017. The Cowboys had 40 yards in that 42-17 loss to the Broncos, and Elliott finished with a career-low 8. But the Packers have the 26thranked run defense through four weeks.
“I just think you have to be careful about getting into numbers too much,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “We’re going to go do what we want to do and again, try to attack different ways, try to be who we are in all phases of our team.”
The Packers’ Aaron Jones had his first career 100-yard game in a 35-31 win over the Cowboys as a rookie two years ago, but has averaged 20 yards in two games since going for 116 in Week 2 this year. Like their defense, the Packers have the 26th-ranked rushing offense.
“We’ve got to make sure the wide receivers are on the same page, the quarterback’s on the same page, the tight ends are on the same page, the offensive line’s on the same page and the running back is,” left tackle David Bakhtiari said.
Did Dez catch it?
Randall Cobb, who spent his first eight seasons with the Packers, is facing them for the first time after signing with the Cowboys in the offseason. It took reporters six questions to get to the one he was waiting for: Did Dez catch it?
“I’ve been getting that a lot since I’ve been here,” Cobb said. “We didn’t know what the rules were back then. It’s probably a catch nowadays.“
It was a reference to Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant’s infamous catch that was on fourth down in the fourth quarter of the Packers’ 26-21 divisional-round victory during the 2014 season. The deep ball was ruled a catch and overturned on review. Three years later, the rules changed.
Protecting Prescott
The Cowboys will be without six-time Pro Bowl left tackle Tyron Smith, who sprained an ankle against the Saints. Right tackle La’el Collins missed the first two practices after a back issue cropped up this week.
Cameron Fleming will fill in for Smith. The Cowboys are considering moving second-year guard Connor Williams to Collins’ spot and starting someone else at left guard. The Cowboys are set to face one of the NFL’s two linebacking tandems with at least three sacks apiece in Preston Smith (41⁄ sacks) and Za’Darius Smith (three).
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High drama
The Packers are 3-0 against the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium, with three dramatic victories, starting in 2013 when Rodgers was injured and Matt Flynn led the Packers’ 37-36 win after trailing 26-3 at halftime.
Two years after the Dez catch that wasn’t, the Packers beat the Cowboys in the divisional-round again on Rodgers’ improbable 35-yard completion to Jared Cook that set up Mason Crosby’s field goal on the final play in a 34-31 win.
In 2017, Rodgers’ 12-yard scoring pass to Adams with 11 seconds left gave the Packers a 35-31 win.