It’s still mind-boggling how the Green Bay Packers defense, under coordinator Jeff Hafley, gave up 40 points to an undermanned Dallas Cowboys offense last week.

Or maybe it isn’t.

Most Packers fans probably don’t know the name Steve Shimko. He may have been a huge factor in that 40-40 tie with the Cowboys and why the Cowboys offense was able to put up 40 against Hafley’s unit.

Shimko, a New Jersey native who played his college football in state at Rutgers, is the Cowboys quarterbacks coach. His first NFL job came as an offensive assistant with the Seattle Seahawks back in 2018.

In between working under Pete Carroll with Seattle and now in his second season with Dallas, Shimko was the offensive coordinator at Boston College.

That’s right, Boston College. Where the Packers Hafley was the head coach. If anyone in the league knows Hafley and his defensive philosophies it just might be the guy who ran his offense in his only stint as a head coach.

Shmko saw Hafley’s defense and his schemes every day in practice, met with him every day in meetings. You can’t tell me Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who hand-picked Shimko to join the Cowboys, wasn’t picking his brain all week prior to the Packers game.

That makes as much sense as any as how Hafley’s defense, which was so dominating over the first three weeks of the season, was so bad last Sunday night in Dallas.

3 for 3 and 3 in 1: Through those first three games of the season against Detroit, Washington and Cleveland the Packers defense allowed a total of three plays of 20 yards, or more — one in each game. And none of those three were to a wide receiver. Against Dallas, wide receiver George Pickens had three plays of 20 yards, or more, himself.

Clean it Up: The bye week comes at a good time for the Packers for a lot of reasons (getting injured players back is near the top). One of the self-scouting issues the coaching staff has to address is penalties. After four games, the Packers lead the league with 35 penalties against them. That’s an average of almost nine per game and would put them on pace for 148 for the season, which would be a team record.

The Good News: After leading the league in dropped passes in 2024 through four games the Packers group of wide receivers have not dropped a pass this season. Of course drops are very subjective, but I think I’m tougher than most on those and have none thus far.

Coming Soon:

After the bye the Packers will host the Cincinnati Bengals, who are 2-2 and play at Detroit, Sunday. The Bengals got off to a 2-0 start, but lost quarterback Joe Burrow to a foot injury and have not looked good in losses to Minnesota and Denver.

Following the Bengals, is a trip to Arizona to play the Cardinals, also 2-2 as they host Tennessee this week. Arizona held on the first two weeks to edge Carolina and New Orleans before losing on last-second field goals to division rivals San Francisco and Seattle.

After that it’s Pittsburgh on Sunday Night Football and well, you’ll hear plenty about that one as it gets closer.