The Dallas Cowboys’ Week 4 matchup against the Green Bay Packers has been written about from many different angles this week. The return of Micah Parsons, Jordan Love’s first time back in this stadium since that fateful playoff game two years ago, the list goes on. 

In the spirit of simply talking ball, we’ll skip our own superlatives in the piece and focus simply on why the Cowboys could win, and why they could lose. Let’s get to it

Dallas will win if they can disrupt Jordan Love consistently. Even with the potential return of DaRon Bland, the team has too many holes in their secondary to feel good about it being effective as currently constructed. 

The emergence of Reddy Steward has been a pleasant surprise but even then, he’s just one man. Trevon Diggs has struggled all season, Kaiir Elam has been who we thought he was, and Donovan Wilson is woefully miscast in coverage. 

Absent outside help for the secondary, the Cowboys best chance of a bounceback performance from the group will come if they can receive help from the pass rush. 

As bad as the defensive backs have been, they likely wouldn’t be quite this abhorrent if the lack of pressure on opposing quarterbacks didn’t require them to cover for so long. 

Luckily, it seems like the pass rush will finally be getting those reinforcements as Jadeveon Clowney is primed to make his team debut. If he, along with the rest of the pass rush, can take things up a notch and be heartless towards Love, Dallas will have their best shot at winning. 

The Cowboys will lose if they can’t protect their own quarterback. At this point, we know the deal with the Dallas offensive line. 

They’ve lost two starters to a high ankle sprain already. Those that remain have flashed, but been largely ineffective at protecting Dak Prescott. Of course, that’s not exactly encouraging against a team such as Green Bay. 

Not only do they have old friend Micah Parsons and his 91.5 PFF pass rushing grade, but the Packers also have three other players on their defensive front with a grade higher than 70.9. Why did we choose 70.9?

Because that is the mark belonging to Kenny Clark, the Cowboys' leader in the metric. Meanwhile, they don’t have an offensive lineman with a pass blocking grade higher than Tyler Smith’s 53.8.

I say all of this to point out two things, as obvious as they may be: Green Bay has a very good pass rush beyond Parsons, and the Dallas o-line has struggled to block all year. 

With that in mind, it seems likely that Dak will spend a large portion of Sunday night if not on the ground, than very uncomfortable. And, if that’s the case, it’s hard to see the Cowboys not finishing on the losing end of the tilt.