Green Bay opened the second half with a three-and-out, and Dallas immediately answered with a touchdown drive. For a moment, the Cowboys looked ready to turn a 17-0 hole into a real football game rather than a long Sunday night exercise in arithmetic.
That moment mattered. It also had limits.
Dallas lost 23-13 at Lambeau Field, and its defense allowed only six points after halftime. The response had substance: Green Bay managed 57 rushing yards for the game, Dallas recorded three sacks, and the Packers’ first possession after the break covered negative seven yards.
The Cowboys then drove 46 yards in nine plays, converting a fourth-and-2 pass to CeeDee Lamb before Javonte Williams finished the possession with a 1-yard touchdown run.
But defensive improvement is not the same thing as defensive absolution. The damage had been done on third down before halftime, when Green Bay converted nine of 10 chances. The opening scoring drive traveled 90 yards in 14 plays and stayed alive through four third-down conversions, including completions on third-and-13 twice.
Matthew Golden’s 9-yard touchdown catch came on third-and-6. A defense can survive an occasional conversion; it cannot keep handing an opponent fresh sets of downs and expect the scoreboard to remain polite.
The second half offered a much better standard. Green Bay’s next scoring possession lasted 11 plays and reached the Dallas 26, but the Cowboys forced a fourth-and-6 and held Trey Smack to a 44-yard field goal. The Packers’ following scoring drive reached the Dallas 11 before ending with another Smack kick, this one from 29 yards.
Those were not empty stops, but they were meaningful ones: two possessions crossed midfield, neither ended in seven points, and Dallas kept the game from becoming immediately unreachable again.
Still, the Packers left points on the field, which complicates any celebration of the turnaround. Golden had a 43-yard touchdown opportunity fall incomplete in the second quarter, and Christian Watson missed a 26-yard chance in the third. Those were not imaginary scoring threats created by hindsight; both were described as potential touchdowns in the postgame accounting.
Dallas deserves credit for the points Green Bay did not get, but the drops also warn against declaring that the secondary solved its problems after halftime.
The first half remains the stronger evidence of what must be fixed. Jordan Love finished with 276 passing yards, while Green Bay converted 11 of 18 third downs overall. Dallas did produce pressure—Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark and Elijah Garcia each had a sack—but pressure without consistent down-to-down finishing left too many manageable situations for Love.
