Sunday night was a wild one for the Dallas Cowboys and all they have to show for their work is a tie. Obviously it is better than a loss, but a win was certainly within grasp.
Offensively speaking there were all sorts of incredible performances and marks achieved by Dallas. Defensively things were, um, offensive. This is the story of the brief Cowboys season to date and it appears one that we have to become comfortable with moving forward.
How does what we saw between the Cowboys and Packers look relative
to franchise history and NFL history at large? Each and every week we measure different things, both positive and negative, through that lens thanks to the handy resources with Stathead and Pro Football Reference.
Here are this week’s historical notes.
Dak Prescott’s night was wasted It is difficult to contextualize how well Dak Prescott played on Sunday night. He threw the ball 40 times, threw three touchdowns, ran in another, and did all of this with a completion percentage above 75% mind you.
Dak is just the ninth player ever to do this in a game. He is the only one who did not win.
This screenshot does not show it, but the list shrinks to seven if we exclude those who threw interceptions. Amazingly doing so would cut out the two legends as they were Tom Brady (who threw two) and Peyton Manning. You likely have noticed that Manning’s game here is from the infamous battle he had with Tony Romo in 2013. This means that two of these games occurred at AT&T Stadium.
The defense is, shocker, very bad
Part of the reason the Cowboys did not win the game is because their defense is so porous. They have been that way for basically this entire season, save for the time after the lightning delay in Philadelphia in Week 1 (feels fair now to say that the delay certainly helped them).
Over the last three games the Cowboys defense has allowed over 1,300 yards and over 100 points. They are only the seventh team in franchise history to reach these marks in a single season.
This is some pretty tough company to say the least. We are talking about the worst defenses in franchise history, even if that 1985 group did go on to win the NFC East.
The Cowboys defense has an unfortunate streak going
Russell Wilson threw for three touchdowns against the Cowboys a few weeks back. Seven days later, Caleb Williams tossed four. On Sunday night Jordan Love had a hat trick himself.
This is only the fourth time in Cowboys franchise history where they are riding a three-game streak of opposing quarterbacks throwing at least three touchdowns against them.
This is not good!
George Pickens is off to quite the start
One of the brighter spots on the Cowboys in this game was the play of George Pickens. All told he amassed eight receptions for 134 yards and two scores.
Pickens officially has 300 yards through his first four games with the team. He is the fifth player since 1970 to do this.
You’ll note that Pickens has the most touchdowns of this group. He is one of two players to have four receiving touchdowns through a player’s first four games with the Cowboys. The other one is Jackie Harris.
Harris did not have anywhere near as many yards, though. This means that George Pickens is the first player in Dallas Cowboys in this time to have 300 yards and four receiving touchdowns through the first four games played for the team.
The ground game is thriving and Javonte Williams deserves credit
We are four games into the season and Javonte Williams is sitting on four touchdowns with over 300 rushing yards. He is the first player to reach these thresholds through the first four games of a season for the Cowboys since Ezekiel Elliott did it in 2021. He is only the second in the last decade.
There are some highly successful offenses across franchise history on this list. Running the ball helps a ton.
Seriously, Javonte Williams is off to an incredible start
Technically speaking, Williams has had double-digit carries in each game this season (he had exactly 10 in Week 3). In each of these games he has averaged at least 3.5 yards per carry.
He is the first Cowboys running back since Ezekiel Elliott in 2018 to have double-digit carries and average 3.5 YPC or more in the first four games of a season. This is quite the list.
Keep in mind when looking at totals here that they are totals for the streak in question. Williams has a streak going of four games which is what Zeke had. DeMarco Murray established that streak across the first 13 games of the 2014 season which is why his totals are much higher, they represent the life of the entire streak.
