Sunday Night Football is serving up a clash of two teams on wildly different trajectories for Week 6. Green Bay is riding high after their best performance of the season, a dominant 31-7 manhandling of the Chicago Bears, while the Dallas Cowboys are reeling from an embarrassing 24-16 home loss to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Get your snacks ready because this one could be a shootout, and the numbers on Dallas’s defense are getting tough to ignore.
Dallas’s Defense is Collapsing and Love Is Rolling
Jordan Love is coming off arguably the best game of his career, and the timing couldn’t be better for him, or worse for Dallas. He shredded Chicago for 367 yards, two touchdowns, and zero interceptions on 25 completions out of 31 attempts, logging a career-high passer rating of 137.5. Love clearly enjoys terrorizing Chicago, much like the quarterbacks before him. Now, he gets to face a Dallas defense that has been a total disaster, especially through the air.
According to Pro Football Focus, the Cowboys secondary is dead last in the entire league in EPA per pass play allowed, pass success rate allowed, passer rating allowed, and interceptions. They’re not exactly pressuring quarterbacks either, which means Love could have all day to pick apart a truly struggling secondary with his weapons. Dallas expects Joey Porter Jr. back this week, but with Love’s confidence soaring right now, that might not be nearly enough.
MarShawn Lloyd Just Found His “Angry Runs” Game
The Green Bay ground game has been pretty much nonexistent this season, with running back MarShawn Lloyd averaging just 2.8 yards per rushing attempt. But don’t let that number fool you; he’s still their primary ball carrier, and he found the end zone twice last week against the Bears. He even snagged the “Angry Runs” award for a nasty truck stick on cornerback Jaylon Johnson during a 6-yard touchdown.
While those two scores don’t suddenly mean Lloyd has completely found his footing, this Sunday Night game against Dallas feels like a massive opportunity. The Cowboys’ run defense is atrocious, literally dead last in rushing yards allowed per game at 168.4. They’re also giving up over 5.0 yards per carry. This matchup has “get-right game” written all over it for Lloyd and the Green Bay offense.
Can Green Bay’s Corners Handle TWO Elite Receivers?
The Packers defense has benefited from facing backup quarterbacks the last two weeks, but this week brings a major challenge to their secondary. Green Bay’s corners, Keisean Nixon and rookie Brandon Cisse, are going to have their hands full with the Cowboys’ dynamic receiver duo, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. The last time Nixon and Cisse faced a premier receiver, Drake London ripped them for 194 receiving yards. Now they have to deal with two.
Lamb and Pickens have combined for a staggering 66 catches, 862 yards, and five touchdowns this season. Only Green Bay’s own Christian Watson and Matthew Golden have been more productive. Nixon has been Green Bay’s top corner, but he’s battling a groin injury. Cisse has shown flashes of solid play, but he’s allowing a passer rating of 147.4 against his coverage, which is the fifth-worst among qualified corners, per Pro Football Focus. With Nixon potentially hobbled and Cisse a definite weak spot, the Packers absolutely have to figure out how to slow down Lamb and Pickens.
This Sunday Night Football matchup is going to be wild. Can the Green Bay offense keep clicking against a disastrous Dallas defense, or will Lamb and Pickens exploit the Packers’ hobbled secondary? It’s a prime-time showdown, and the Emerald City is gonna be watching to see how this one plays out.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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