Jeff Hafley has earned the benefit of the doubt despite ugly performance against Dak Prescott and the Cowboys

The Green Bay Packers gave up 40 points to a team without its superstar receiver or two starting offensive linemen. It was bad. Really bad. But if we can agree that one game doesn’t define the season, then a bad loss tie against the Dallas Cowboys doesn’t mean more than the butt-kickings Jeff Hafley’s defense handed out in Weeks 1 and 2. Hafley’s track record in making in-season adjustments and maximizing his talent deserves the benefit of the doubt as Green Bay tries to get this sorted.

For starters, just how bad was the Sunday night game? By EPA/play, the Cowboys put together the best offensive performance of the season. The only reason the game ended in a tie is that the Packers managed the second-most efficient game of the year to date. In fact, the Dallas game alone dropped the Packers from third in EPA/play defensively all the way to 16th.

It’s an outlier.

The cornerbacks gave up some plays, but a worse secondary cobbled together a top-10 passing defense last year without Parsons or the clear strides made by Lukas Van Ness.

And after watching the film from Dallas, the final results reflect far more on Dak Prescott and the football gods than Green Bay’s personnel.

Pro Football Focus graded Dak Prescott with a 90.2 grade when facing pressure against this pass rush that included 10 pressures from Prescott’s superstar former teammate. He was a preposterous 12/14 for 162 yards and a touchdown against pressure. That’s just not replicable. There’s no blueprint for attacking the Packers other than to have an opposing quarterback playing with flames shooting out of his ass.