Ryan Flournoy’s six-yard touchdown catch was a good football play. Dallas moved 78 yards in 13 plays, Flournoy helped sustain the march and finished with seven receptions for 40 yards and a touchdown on nine targets.
It also came too late to qualify as a comeback.
The Cowboys lost 23-13 to Green Bay at Lambeau Field on Sunday night, trailing 17-0 before their offense found the end zone. Flournoy’s score narrowed the margin, but it did not change the game’s shape. His night is best understood in two parts: a receiver making useful plays, and an offense repeatedly mistaking completed passes for progress.
Flournoy was involved before Dallas began chasing the scoreboard. On the opening possession, Prescott found him for seven yards on third-and-four at the Dallas 40. The catch moved the chains. The series then produced a two-yard completion to Hunter Luepke, a four-yard Javonte Williams run and a no-gain pass to Williams before the punt.
On the next possession, Flournoy caught a two-yard pass. Dallas followed with a CeeDee Lamb incompletion on third-and-12 and punted again. Those receptions belong in his performance ledger. They simply did not alter the possession’s outcome.
The other side of Flournoy’s night came during Dallas’ second-quarter drive. He was flagged for holding on a Goodson run that would have gained nine yards. The gain disappeared, and Dallas lost ground instead. For a receiver, contributing to a drive includes what happens when somebody else has the ball. That penalty belongs beside the receptions in a complete assessment.
The second interception carried a different sequence but the same cost. Dallas moved from its 28 to the Packers’ 23 after completions to Williams, Brevyn Spann-Ford and George Pickens. A holding penalty on Flournoy erased Goodson’s nine-yard run, and a neutral-zone penalty moved the next snap to the Packers’ 28.
On first-and-15 there, Brandon Cisse intercepted a pass intended for Lamb. The Cowboys had completed passes and crossed midfield, yet never reached the red zone on that possession.
This is where the seven-catch total needs context. Flournoy was not merely collecting harmless late-game throws. His opening-drive catch converted third down.
His late touchdown drive included an eight-yard reception from the Dallas 36 that followed a five-yard Williams run on third-and-one, and he later caught three yards from the Packers’ 30 to the 27. Those were connective plays inside a possession that also featured Pickens’ 21-yard catch and Lamb’s seven-yard reception.
After roughing the passer moved the ball to the Packers’ 6, Flournoy finished the drive with the touchdown.
That contribution deserves credit. The failed two-point attempt and the onside kick that went out of bounds made the ending procedural, but Flournoy’s catch itself was earned. Nothing in the play sequence supports treating all seven receptions as the product of soft coverage or desperation football.
