ARLINGTON, Texas Emotionally, Sunday night wasnt a football result. Instead, it was winning a million dollars in the lottery and then finding out youre splitting it with three million people.
Exciting. Deflating. Unfulfilling. But in football realities, also telling.
Thats what a 40-40 tie between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers felt like Monday night. There were two locker rooms where neither side was sure how it should feel. Two head coaches sorted through a shared custody of defensive problems in hopes of finding a silver lining. Two quarterbacks dueled through a masterclass of punching and counterpunching. Two fan bases and probably most football fans in general that just wanted a resolution that counts in only two columns: A win or a loss.
As Packers defensive end Rashan Gary put it, Its not a win. Its not a loss. But it dont feel good.
Or Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott: I dont care about the stats. I dont care about the ups and downs, the ebbs and flows. I just care about the end result and getting a win. When you dont get that, right now its hard for me to 10 years in thats the first tie Ive been a part of its hard to kind of wrap my head around this. Id feel a hell of a lot worse if it was a loss. But Im not satisfied. Not that I would be if we won. Yeah, its just a weird feeling.
And yet, as unsatisfying and empty as an NFL stalemate can be, its also extremely educational. It most certainly was when it came to the Cowboys (1-2-1) and Packers (2-1-1), who both jointly put up arguably the most thrilling and impressive volleys of offense weve seen this season. Between Prescott and Green Bays Jordan Love, there was a total of 656 passing yards, with six touchdowns and not a single interception. Eighteen different players caught at least one pass in the game. Both rushing attacks had impressive stretches.
It was basically 1800s bare-knuckle boxing with two teams each relentlessly punching each other in the face. Defense was more of an idea than an actual functioning part of the repertoire.
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This is the educational part of Sunday night. It’s the lesson that tells you that in the midst of the draw, it was exhilarating and befuddling how easily the offenses of the Cowboys and Packers went up and down the field when they needed it. Because as brilliant as those groups were Sunday night, the flip side were a pair of defenses that were equally as horrible.
Of course, we can argue about some of the officiating. Prescott may have committed intentional grounding in the fourth quarter and gotten away with it. And the Packers might have run out of time at the end of regulation but had the good fortune of a seemingly slow final second on the clock. Both sides seemed to catch a break here and there throughout the game. None of those breaks explained away the the pillowy soft resistance of each franchise.
Indeed, neither played the kind of defense that should inspire those who reside inside the franchises. If we want to know who won the Micah Parsons trade between these two, the answer right now might be nobody. At least, not yet.
Both secondaries looked incapable of stopping the pass in various must-have moments. Wideout George Pickens smoked the Packers for his best game as a Cowboy, to the tune of 134 receiving yards and two touchdowns. And Packers wideout Romeo Doubs inexplicably couldnt be handled by Dallas in the red zone, catching three touchdown passes that ranged on a scale from covered to completely wide open.
The Cowboys are still sucking wind on the pass rush, sacking Love once and bringing its season total to five in four games. And Prescott? He was sacked once by the Packers by Parsons in a late overtime moment that was pivotal enough to be counted as a touchdown-denying play that might have turned a loss into a tie. Not that Prescott believed it counted.
They did that [counting it as a sack] for yall for the theatrics of it, a smiling Prescott said. For the storyline. Like a tie.
Maybe it was, maybe it wasnt. But it was certainly the moment that Packers fans were hoping for from Parsons with the star edge rusher coming to the rescue when Green Bay absolutely had to have it. And to have it coupled with a quarterback pressure on the next play, which led to Prescott throwing the ball away on third down, preserving only a field goal, was only sweeter for the Packers faithful.
But it also didnt suddenly transform Green Bays effort into the stuff of Super Bowls, either. Not for a defense that was billed by many as being made complete by the acquisition of Parsons. There are weaknesses there. Granted, Dallas’ offense has been the teams bright spot this season, but it lacked wideout CeeDee Lamb and had a banged up offensive line, yet still managed to move the ball through some very impressive and creative play-calling by Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
Therein was the upside for both teams. A 40-40 tie that could provide possibly helpful playoff math at the end of the season can also be celebrated for showcasing that theres a generous offensive ceiling for both franchises. The Packers have the balance of a running game and a stable of rotational receivers who should get better as the season moves along. And Dallas is finding players like Jalen Tolbert and KaVontae Turpin to step in for Lamb enhancing their worth and the Cowboys’ depth later in the season.
But the defensive breakdowns are also concerning for both.
You could see it in Parsons demeanor afterward, who described himself as pissed off.
Im very disappointed just overall in how we performed, Parsons said. I even told Jordan [Love] to the side, Thank you for having our back today. Thats why its so pivotal that you play complementary football. Because today, Jordan played like the player he was and we let him down. We didnt live up to the expectations on defense.
Conversely, you could read it between the lines of Schottenheimer looking for positives in the tie.
Weve got to learn how to win, he said. This is Year 1 of our program. But when you have the fight that these guys do when theyre willing to battle 70 minutes-plus two weeks in a row at home were building something special here. No one in that locker room is happy. No one in that locker room is fulfilled. We didnt win. Theres definitely things to clean up, but I would be remiss if I didnt say how proud I was of them and their fight. I wanted that for them. But man, NFL football is hard.
More to the point, getting wins are hard. And enduring ties are brutal. Especially when it puts a pin in the argument about who won the Parsons trade.
They played, what, 3 1/2 hours and tied, team owner Jerry Jones said. They got Micah and weve got what weve got. And we tied.
Well try it again.