GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Matt LaFleur never thought 23 points would have been enough. Not against a high-powered offense like the Dallas Cowboys'. Not with a quarterback like Dak Prescott. Or receivers like CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens.
Perhaps it's because the Green Bay Packers' coach had not yet fully realized what his defense can pull off -- even after losing its best linebacker (Edgerrin Cooper) in Week 4 to a season-ending torn Achilles and even without its best pass rusher (Micah Parsons), who is still a few weeks away from making his season debut.
LaFleur might have to change his thinking going forward.
For the third straight game, the Packers held an opponent to 14 points or fewer. That had not happened for a Green Bay team since well before LaFleur's arrival in 2019. In fact, not since the 2016 season had a Packers team put together a streak of three straight games like that.
And the Packers did it against a Cowboys team that put up 40 against them last season. Green Bay's last three opponents combined haven't scored 40.
"If you told me going into this game that you're going to score 23 points, I was like, ah, we need to score 30-plus," LaFleur said after Sunday's 23-13 win over the Cowboys at Lambeau Field.
For most of the game, the Cowboys had a mere seven spot on the board. It wasn't until the final minute that Dallas scored for a second time.
"Our defense, they did their job," LaFleur said. "[The Cowboys] got the late one, the last one late in the game, and I thought for the entire game our defense really balled out."
It's not the first time.
During their three-game winning streak, the Packers (4-2) have allowed a total of 34 points -- 14 by the Buccaneers (1-5) in Week 3, seven by the Bears (4-2) in Week 4 and now 13 by the Cowboys (2-4).
"I think we can be the best defense in the league," said Packers safety Javon Bullard, who was 14 years old the last time the Packers held three straight teams to 14 or fewer points.
The Cowboys barely ran the ball -- 15 times for 48 yards. They didn't have a run longer than 8 yards, and they had one offensive play that went longer than 17 yards: a 21-yard pass from Prescott to Pickens with 1:54 left in the game.
"I think it's just a credit to who we can be," linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "Obviously we got a lot of things to continue to clean up and get better at, but I feel like we a defense on the rise. I think every week we continue to get better and better; taking the ball away, stopping the run, limiting explosive plays. I mean, that's [the] recipe to being great. We got some stuff to clean up, but I think the ceiling is extremely high."
When defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon took over for Jeff Hafley, who left to become the Dolphins' head coach, he knew he had to come up with a way to win early on without Parsons, who is recovering from a torn left ACL. He decided to lean heavily on blitzes and in-your-face man coverage. While the pass rush hasn't been as consistent as he'd like, they've made up for it with takeaways.
Safety Evan Williams' interception of Prescott just in front of the goal line in the second quarter was a thing of beauty. He started at the line of scrimmage but quickly retreated into coverage and picked off a pass intended for Lamb. At one point, Williams was 17.4 yards away from Lamb before he closed on the play, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
Evan Williams and the @Packers respond with an INT of their own! DALvsGB on NBC/Peacock Stream on @NFLPlus https://t.co/rqynGJkH2e
— NFL (@NFL) October 19, 2026
When rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse got his first career interception one series later after Lamb lost his footing, it gave the Packers nine interceptions through six games -- two more than they had all of last season. With 11 takeaways in all, the Packers are tied with the Seahawks for most in the league.
Gannon's pressure packages got to Prescott. After pressuring him four times in the first half, the Packers put Prescott under duress on 21 of 41 second-half dropbacks, according to ESPN Analytics. About the only downside to the aggressive approach were three roughing the passer penalties, all in the fourth quarter.
And to think this was a Packers team that was booed off the field after their 35-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in their Week 3 home opener. That was Franklin's first game in Lambeau Field as a Packer. Reflecting on it Sunday night, he called it "a gut punch."
"Not even to dwell in the past, was we didn't hold it down for our fans," Franklin said. "That was the thing I was most embarrassed about. Our fans deserved a better home opener than that, and when we come to Lambeau, it's our home-field advantage. So when they come in our house, we got to make sure we defending it the right way. So I'm just glad we was able to give our fans a performance they deserve."
Imagine what this defense can do when Parsons returns.
And speaking of returns, running back Josh Jacobs could make his season debut this week. He came off the commissioner exempt list on Monday after missing the first six games of the season. Without him, the Packers have the worst run game in the league (59.8 rushing yards per game) and haven't rushed for 100 yards as a team in any game this season.
"It's a different team now," cornerback Keisean Nixon said. "Think they was scared of us then? We'll see what happen when [Jacobs] get back and then [Parsons] come back. We'll see."
