Credit Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who also befuddled Dallas during his time in Arizona, for stymying the Cowboys’ explosives. The Packers played zone coverage on 76.8% of Prescott’s dropbacks, holding him to 4.3 yards per attempt (Prescott’s fourth-fewest since 2018) and no touchdowns while recording both of their interceptions and their lone sack in zone, per Next Gen Stats.
“They know the guys that we have,” Prescott said. “They know we want to take the top off of it and they’re going to get back. Their method is stay the deepest, stay the furthest back, make us throw underneath and make tackles. And so we just got to catch and get some [yards after catch] and have the plays to make sure that we’re attacking underneath and taking advantage of what they’re showing and giving us.”
Prescott never looked comfortable. He finished 34-of-54 for 258 yards, a TD and two interceptions. He’s also lucky he didn’t throw a couple more picks late.
Schottenheimer is under fire for the recent offensive struggles, including the inability to get the ground game going. The coach’s play-calling left a lot to be desired. With the Packers relentlessly pressuring Prescott, Schottenheimer offered no answers and kept dropping the QB back, with some particularly head-scratching calls late in the contest.
“Because of the lack of a running game, we’re a little bit one-sided and the best way to be on offense as a unit is to have balance,” Schottenheimer said. “So we have to find balance. And again, there’s a lot of reasons for that. There’s missed blocks, there’s bad calls, there’s missed runs, there’s different things. But at the end of the day, we know what we’re capable of, but we have to go out and do it.”
The Cowboys entered the offseason believing they might finally have a team worthy of a deep playoff run. Instead, they’ve tripped over themselves. With games against the reeling 2-4 Eagles, 2-4 Cardinals and 2-4 Colts on tap, Schottenheimer needs to go on a run, or that hot seat will become blazing.