Second-Half Oh-for: Defensive failure among 3 major takeaways from Cowboys' Week 4 tie

The Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers battled to a draw on Sunday Night Football, and unexpected ending to a riveting contest. A fan could take away a positive from this, considering the team had played terribly defensively thus far and were down a couple of starting offensive linemen and their top receiving option, CeeDee Lamb.

The takeaway could also be negative because the team wasted an incredible offensive performance led by quarterback Dak Prescott. In a game as crucial as this was to both teams, the takeaways from the contest are all over the place.

George Pickens played like a No. 1 receiver

George Pickens has a chance to make a lot of money and earn the respect of a top receiver in the league against the Green Bay Packers. In the Cowboys' first chance to game plan with Pickens in the WR1 receiver role, he dominated. He had eight receptions for 134 yards and two touchdowns. He won on a 50-50 deep ball, took a short pass for a 28-yard go-ahead score with under a minute to go, and everything in between.

This chemistry building between Prescott and Pickens will only help the team more as they get healthy.

Defense allowed a score on every Packers possession in the second half

The Dallas offense showed up in a big way against a Packers defense that ranked second in the NFL in scoring defense going into Week 4. The Cowboys needed the defense to step up once in the second half or overtime, but they never did.

Green Bay scored three straight touchdowns to start the half. The first was a nine-play, 76-yard drive. The next went eight plays for 70 yards, and the final was 10 plays for 80 yards. They then hit a field goal to tie at the end of regulation, and finally a tying one to end overtime. A single stop could’ve given Dallas a much-needed victory, but they never pulled it off.

Dak was an MVP level quarterback

Prescott was undeniable on Sunday night. All the injuries, the porous complimentary defense, and the excellent opponent couldn’t keep the quarterback from delivering an MVP-level performance.

Prescott was 31 out of 40 for 319 yards with three touchdown passes and also ran for a score. He had a +22.5 Expected Points Added (EPA) and a win probability added of 122.8%. In the second half, when the defense couldn’t get a stop, Prescott scored a touchdown on five of the final six drives to get the game to overtime and then hit an unbelievable pass to Jalen Tolbert to set up Dallas for a field goal in overtime. The game ended in a tie, but Prescott did everything in his power to win the game.

You can find Mike Crum on Twitter @cdpiglet or on YouTube at Across the Cowboys podcast

This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: 3 Major takeaways from Cowboys Wk 4 tie with Packers include MVP Dak