Dallas did enough Sunday night in Green Bay to make the scoreboard uncomfortable. It did not do enough in the red zone to make the result uncertain.
The Cowboys reached the Packers’ red zone four times in a 23-13 loss at Lambeau Field and scored touchdowns on two of those visits. The other two ended with Evan Williams intercepting Dak Prescott at the Packers 3 and a fourth-down stop at the Green Bay 14.
That split is the clearest explanation for how Dallas could collect 303 yards and 24 first downs yet lose by 10 points.
The first empty possession began with 1:50 left in the first quarter, when Dee Winters intercepted Jordan Love at the Packers 42. Dallas moved to the Packers 19 through a nine-yard completion to Tyler Goodson, a two-yard loss on Goodson’s next carry and CeeDee Lamb’s 16-yard catch on third-and-3. After the quarter break, Goodson added two yards to reach the Packers 17.
Then came the snap that separated an encouraging possession from a wasted one. On second-and-8, Prescott’s pass to Lamb fell incomplete. On third-and-8 from the Packers 17, Williams intercepted the next throw at the Packers 3 and returned it to the Packers 20.
Dallas had reached the scoring area and had a manageable chance to turn a short field into seven points. Instead, the possession produced nothing.
That sequence deserves more emphasis than a simple two-interception summary. The interception was certainly Prescott’s mistake to answer for, but the damage was larger than the turnover statistic. Dallas had already advanced inside the 20 and then failed on the two downs that mattered most. A promising drive became an opposing possession before the Cowboys could even attempt a kick.
Brandon Cisse’s interception later in the second quarter belongs in the broader turnover discussion, not in the red-zone count. Dallas reached the Packers 23 on a 16-yard George Pickens catch, but an offensive holding penalty erased a nine-yard Goodson run. A neutral-zone infraction then moved the next snap to the Packers 28.
Cisse intercepted Prescott on first-and-15 from there. It was costly, but Dallas never snapped inside the Packers 20 on that possession.
The third-quarter touchdown drive showed the alternative. After Green Bay punted, Dallas started at the Packers 46 and faced fourth-and-2 at the Packers 38. Prescott found Lamb for 17 yards, with the catch reaching the Packers 21.
Javonte Williams then ran for 4 yards, Brevyn Spann-Ford caught a six-yard pass, and Williams added runs of 8, 2 and 1 yard. That final one-yard carry produced the touchdown.
The drive covered 46 yards in nine plays, hardly an offensive eruption. Its importance came from the way Dallas kept converting the next necessary moment. The fourth-down throw created breathing room.
The short completion and Williams’ runs kept the possession moving. Near the goal line, the Cowboys did not ask one spectacular play to rescue the series; they built enough ordinary successful plays to finish it.
The fourth-quarter failure was more damaging because Dallas still had time to make the game genuinely tense. Starting at its own 29, the Cowboys drove 57 yards on 14 plays. Pickens helped move Dallas through its own territory with an 11-yard catch to the Dallas 35, then contributed another 11-yard reception to the Packers 43.
