Snap Counts, Stud, Dud and Defining Play Following Packers’ Tie at Cowboys

After blowing a big early lead, the Green Bay Packers were fortunate to earn a tie at the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. Here’s our analysis of the snap counts along with the stud, dud and defining play.

Dallas Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson (87) catches a pass for a touchdown pass between Xavier McKinney and Nate Hobbs. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers seemed to be on their way to a blowout victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. Instead, they were fortunate to salvage a 40-40 tie.

Here is this week’s analysis of the Packers’ snap counts, followed by a stud, dud and the defining play.

Snaps on Offense

The Packers played 83 snaps on offense.

Quarterback: Jordan Love went the distance. He set season highs in completions (31), attempts (43), passing yards (337) and touchdowns (three), and just missed in completion percentage (72.1) and passer rating (118.1). He added a 25-yard run.

Running backs: Josh Jacobs played 54 snaps, compared to 25 for Emanuel Wilson and only five for Chris Brooks. Jacobs carried the ball 22 times for 86 yards and two touchdowns, his best game of the season. Along with a team-high 71 receiving yards, Jacobs had 157 total yards. By our count, 115 came after contact.

But that wasn’t what was noteworthy. First, Wilson had eight carries for 44 yards. He had one carry in the first two games and 14 the last two games. Second, it was Wilson who was on the field in overtime.

Receivers: With the clock ticking away in the final moments of overtime, Romeo Doubs jogged back to the line of scrimmage. Perhaps he was gassed after playing a career-high 75 snaps. The only 100-yard game of his career came at Dallas in the 2023 playoffs. On Sunday, he had three touchdowns. Jerry Jones probably will give him $100 million in free agency this offseason.

Dontayvion Wicks played 64 snaps. He caught only two passes, but one was a 15-yard catch-and-run in which he broke two tackles in overtime.

Matthew Golden played 49 snaps. Among his career-high five catches for 58 yards was a 46-yarder on the opening drive and a key fourth-down conversion in overtime.

Malik Heath played 19. His only target was a 9-yard catch on the drive that sent the game to overtime.

Savion Williams played 10. He caught three passes for 23 yards but missed a block on the pass to Golden that lost 3 yards in overtime.

Tight ends: Tucker Kraft played all but four snaps. He caught all five targets for 56 yards. For the first time all season, Luke Musgrave (25 snaps) got a lot more action than John FitzPatrick (10). Ben Sims played seven snaps on special teams.

Offensive line: For the first time this season, Green Bay’s line played every snap. With starters Zach Tom and Aaron Banks and rookie backup Anthony Belton inactive, Rasheed Walker, Jordan Morgan, Elgton Jenkins, Sean Rhyan and Darian Kinnard were together for every play.

They weren’t great but Love was sacked only once and Josh Jacobs had consistent running room for the first time this season in the second half.

Snaps on Defense

The Packers played 69 snaps on defense.

Green Bay Packers defensive end Micah Parsons (1) and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) embrace after the tie game. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Defensive ends: In his return to Dallas, Micah Parsons led the unit with 47 snaps. While it didn’t seem like he created the same amount of havoc as the past three games, PFF credited him with eight pressures and Next Gen Stats gave him seven. Officially, he had the only sack and three of the five quarterback hits.

Rashan Gary played 43 snaps, followed by Lukas Van Ness with 39, Kingsley Enagbare with 13 and Barryn Sorrell with eight. Gary, who entered the week leading the NFL in sacks, made no impact in the passing game but was solid against the run. Officially, Van Ness didn’t make a single statistical contribution, though he had a few pressures. Enagbare downed a punt at the 5.

Defensive tackles: The Packers had only four defensive tackles active. Who knows if that factored in the defense’s performance because the unit’s best player, Devonte Wyatt, dropped out with a knee injury after 13 snaps. That left only Colby Wooden (46 snaps), Karl Brooks (40) and Nazir Stackhouse (27), though Van Ness picked up some of the slack.

Stackhouse had two tackles and Wooden and Brooks each had a quarterback hit, but Dallas had consistent success running the ball.

Linebackers: Edgerrin Cooper and Quay Walker went the distance and Isaiah McDuffie played 23 snaps. Walker got off to a hot start and finished with 11 tackles. He had the only tackle for loss. Cooper had seven tackles but continues to miss far too many.

Cornerbacks: Keisean Nixon played all 69 snaps. The Cowboys went after him with limited success, with Nixon giving up four catches and recording two breakups. The disappointing play came in overtime, when Dak Prescott was forced out of the pocket and launched a bomb toward Jalen Tolbert, who made an incredible catch at the sideline for 34 yards. Nixon had the best view in the house; he simply stood in the end zone and made no effort to get to the ball.

Nate Hobbs dropped out after 46 snaps due to injury. He gave up two touchdowns but did break up a pass. If he was bad, Carrington Valentine was worse. In 24 snaps, he gave up 6-of-6 passing for 84 yards, including the go-ahead touchdown by George Pickens in the fourth quarter, when Valentine whiffed on the tackle at the 20.

Safeties: Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams played all 69 snaps and Javon Bullard returned from last week’s concussion to play 45. Williams had nine tackles and McKinney had six but neither made a play on the ball. Of course, it’s hard for McKinney to make a play on the ball when the ball doesn’t come  his way. Williams and Hobbs were in coverage on Pickens’ big catch that set up Dallas’ first touchdown.

No matter what PFF’s grades will tell you, Bullard is having a strong second season. Playing mostly in the slot, he gave up one catch.

Defining Play: Blocked Extra Point

The protection rules on extra points and field goals are pretty simple. Block the most dangerous man.

Green Bay lined up to attempt an extra point to take a 14-0 lead in the second quarter. Tight end Luke Musgrave was the wing on the right side. Lined up inside of him was safety Juanyeh Thomas; lined up outside of him was cornerback C.J. Goodwin. For Musgrave, the assignment was to block Thomas because he was the closest to the kicker. Instead, Musgrave blocked Goodwin and Thomas made a bee line to Brandon McManus.

Block the wrong guy, bad things happen.
Karl Brooks replaced Luke Musgrave on the right wing after this play. pic.twitter.com/eAVWKE5dOS

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) September 29, 2025

The result was a block that the Cowboys scooped up for two points. Not only did the Cowboys have points, they had momentum, which they rode the rest of the way to turn a potential blowout loss into a tie.

For the rest of the game, Karl Brooks replaced Musgrave.

Last week, the Browns turned defeat into victory when Tucker Kraft was beaten off the left edge and Jordan Morgan was overpowered up the middle, resulting in Denzel Ward tipping and Shelby Harris blocking McManus’ field goal. Seven days later, Rich Bisaccia’s special teams provided another disastrous play.

“We’ve got to do a better job in practice,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “That’s disappointing, obviously, two weeks in a row where you have a kick blocked. I thought we did a lot of good things throughout the course of the week to try to correct the problem. Obviously, it wasn’t good enough.”

Stud: Jordan Love

Great quarterbacks win games like Sunday night. For most of the game, the offense couldn’t run the ball. For most of the game, the defense couldn’t stop Dak Prescott.

So, it was up to Jordan Love. There’s a reason why quarterbacks – especially Love – make the big bucks. Love didn’t win the game, and his end-of-half fumble was a big reason why, but the Packers wouldn’t have had a prayer without him. Love got the ball five times in the second half and overtime. All five times, the Packers trailed. He led the offense to three consecutive go-ahead touchdowns, the game-tying field goal and the game-ending field goal.  

Love threw for 337 yards and three touchdowns. Sure, quarterbacks are lined up around the block to go against the Cowboys. But every time the pressure was on, Love delivered.

Dud: CBs Nate Hobbs, Carrington Valentine

Not to be repetitive, but great quarterbacks win games like Sunday night. Dak Prescott was sensational once coach Brian Schottenheimer finally let him play.

He absolutely destroyed Green Bay’s touted defense. Playing without CeeDee Lamb and with a cobbled-together offensive line that made Jordan Love’s line resemble the Great Wall, Prescott finished 31-of-40 for 319 yards and three touchdowns.

After three consecutive punts to start the game, Dallas went touchdown, touchdown, punt, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown and field goal the rest of the way.

Prescott torched cornerbacks Carrington Valentine and Nate Hobbs. That’s always been the zillion-dollar question about this defense. Would Green Bay have the cornerbacks to beat great quarterbacks with big-time receivers. Through three games, they were excellent, but on Sunday night, Green Bay didn’t have the cornerbacks to beat a great quarterback with only one big-time receiver.