The Green Bay Packers got a pair of first half touchdowns from Jordan Love to take a commanding lead, and Jonathan Gannon's aggressive defense confounded Dak Prescott the rest of the way, leading Matt LaFleur's team to a 23-13 win over the Dallas Cowboys on "Sunday Night Football" in Week 6. The Packers have now won three straight games since a 1-2 start.
Highlighting the good, the bad and the ugly coming out of the Packers' primetime win over the Cowboys:
The Good
The start on offense, and finish on defense: Jordan Love was picked off on Green Bay's second possession, but the Packers offense scored on three of the four first-half drives, all gaining at least 70 yards. The long, time-consuming drives helped the Packers keep the Dallas offense on the sideline
and build a 17-0 lead at the half. But when the Packers offense sputtered over the final 30 minutes, Jonathan Gannon's defense had answers, producing a pair of stops on fourth down in the fourth quarter. The garbage time touchdown meant little. The Packers ended up holding the Cowboys to only 13 points, a winning performance 10 times out of 10.
Love under pressure: Jordan Love's passer rating finished at 74.8, a pedestrian number in today's NFL, but drops drastically affected his final stat line, and Love was excellent when pressured. He found completions on 11 pressured dropbacks. Many of his best throws came on third down against pressure. The Packers started the game converting nine of the first 10 opportunities on third down.
The Bad
The offensive line: Sunday night was a step backwards for the offensive line, which allowed Jordan Love to be pressured on 45.5 percent of his dropbacks, per Next Gen Stats, and paved the way for a lifeless run game that averaged 2.2 yards per carry. Love was sacked three times, and the Cowboys were credited with eight quarterback hits. In the run game, the Packers didn't have a designed run over six yards, and the three running backs combined to rush 20 times for 36 yards. Matt LaFleur wants to build continuity up front, but it's probably time to see what Kevin Zeitler can do at right guard, and there will be a decision to make on who starts at left guard between Laken Tomlinson and Aaron Banks next week.
The Ugly
Drops and penalties: Credit to the Packers for accomplishing a two-score victory despite not playing clean football. The offense dropped at least six passes, including potential touchdown passes to Matthew Golden and Christian Watson, and the Packers finished with 11 penalties for 96 yards, including four penalties giving first downs to the Cowboys. Matt LaFleur's team was in control for most of the contest, and at various points another blowout win looked possible. But some of the lingering but avoidable mistakes kept the Cowboys in the game. The Packers are six games in. Are the drops and penalties fixable problems?
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Good, bad and ugly coming out of Packers' Week 6 win over Cowboys
