The Dallas Cowboys couldn't get out of their own way against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, losing 34-24 at the hands of Aaron Rodgers and Co.

Whatever could go wrong for the Cowboys did go wrong. Whether it was a pass clanking off of Amari Cooper's hands (poorly placed yet very catchable) and resulting in an interception, Dak Prescott throwing an ill-advised interception in tight coverage, Jason Garrett losing his composure or the defense forgetting how to tackle, Dallas simply couldn't stay out of its own way.

Sprinkle in a little Rodgers magic at key moments and some awful officiating (which went both ways), and the Cowboys put themselves in a hole they had little chance of climbing out of.

On the bright side, if there is one: Despite the two-game losing streak, Dallas is still tied for first place in the NFC East and travels to face the winless New York Jets next, a team the can-crushing Cowboys should have no problem defeating.

But it's time to turn our attention back to Sunday's loss as we take a look at a few things we learned about the Cowboys.

Interior D-line struggles vs. the run

Aaron Jones made mincemeat of the Cowboys' defense, slicing and dicing Dallas for more than 175 yards from scrimmage.

A big reason Jones was able to get to the second level of the Cowboys' defense so consistently was the poor gap responsibility by the defensive tackles. Jones' first touchdown of the game is a great example:

Blame Maliek Collins, not Jaylon Smith, for this TD. pic.twitter.com/eW0lXGgzAY — All22Hype (@All22Hype) October 7, 2019

On this play, the Packers are running a zone concept.

On the front side of the play, the Cowboys' run defense is sound. Dorance Armstrong sets a hard edge, maintaining his play-side C-gap discipline to force any outside run into the teeth of the defense. Leighton Vander Esch attacks downhill, effectively plugging the play-side B gap. Christian Covington does well not to get hooked by the center, maintaining and plugging the play-side A gap.

The play's backside is where issues arise. Jaylon Smith actually carries his responsibility out correctly by crossing the right guard's face to defend the backside A gap, but Maliek Collins displays poor awareness by allowing the right tackle to cross his face and hook him, effectively displacing him from his B-gap responsibility and allowing Jones free access to the Dallas secondary.

Safety Xavier Woods is then put in a near impossible situation, as he was forced to come downhill against Jones with a ton of space in the open field -- a losing proposition for almost any safety in today's NFL.

Collins' poor gap discipline was a result of disregarding his keys on the defensive line. Oftentimes in a one-gap scheme, defensive linemen are tasked with reading two keys: a read key, which is the offensive lineman directly across from him, and a pressure key, which is the first offensive lineman to his outside.

Instead of mirroring the lateral movement of his read key to maintain his backside B-gap responsibility, Collins opts to attack vertically, making the right tackle's reach block exceedingly easy. This puts two Cowboys defenders in the backside C gap, clearing out the B gap.

But Collins wasn't alone. Rookie Trysten Hill also displayed poor gap responsibility that led to another big run by Jones:

As the titled nose tackle on this play, Hill's responsibility is the play-side A gap between the center and left guard against an inside zone run. Much like Collins, Hill fails to read the initial steps of his read key -- the center, in this case -- which allows the center to reach and hook Hill, thus unplugging the play-side A gap to give Jones free access the secondary yet again.

Pre-snap, Smith's responsibility was the backside A gap between the center and right guard, which he fills admirably. He could have done a better job of reading Hill's leverage and filling the vacant gap, but that's the type of play only the Bobby Wagners and Luke Kuechlys of the world make -- Smith has yet to ascend to that status.

For what it's worth, Covington was able to penetrate the backfield on a few occasions to cause disruption, but the rest of the defensive tackles struggled against the run.

Collins provided some juice as a pass rusher but turned into a liability at times against the run. Hill is athletic and explosive, but he just lacks the awareness and refinement to his game to be effective with any level of consistency.

While they don't deserve all of the blame for the defense's struggles against the run, the Cowboys' interior defensive line (except for Covington) certainly deserves more than its fair share.

LBs not living up to preseason billing

Entering the season, the prevailing opinion was that the Cowboys possessed the best linebacker core in the NFL. And that made sense.

Vander Esch was coming off an outstanding rookie campaign that saw him make the Pro Bowl and All-Pro second team. Smith was similarly effective as the enforcer in the middle of the defense. Sean Lee was being forced to play a new position, but most believed he would still be moderately effective, at least. Behind those three, Joe Thomas was viewed as one of the league's best reserves, a player who could certainly start for another franchise.

Despite the preseason accolades, the Cowboys' linebackers got taken to school by Green Bay, bringing back memories of losses to the Los Angeles Rams and Indianapolis Colts last season.

Although the interior defensive line played poorly, the linebackers shouldn't escape blame. They struggled mightily, even when arriving at the ball carrier on time.

Missed tackles and poor run fits killed the Cowboys throughout the game and were largely why Jones was able to become the first player with four-plus touchdowns against Dallas since 1994, finishing with 107 rushing yards on 19 carries and 75 receiving yards on seven catches.

Vander Esch was particularly disappointing, as his sloppy tackling and poor gap discipline led to a few big plays for Green Bay's offense.

Missed tackles by LVE vs Aaron Jones pic.twitter.com/4CYSj8ds42 — All22Hype (@All22Hype) October 7, 2019

The common thread for Vander Esch's missed tackles (above clip) is his failure to come to balance at the tackle point. It caused him to continually overpursue Jones, leaving an easy cutback lane for the Packers' running back.

Vander Esch needs to do a better job of pursuing ball carriers from inside-out. This will take away the cutback lane and force runners to bounce wide -- which is fine considering Vander Esch's outstanding speed -- or go through him, a losing endeavor for most backs, especially ones as small as Jones (5-9, 208).

On top of that, Vander Esch displayed poor discipline on the backside of a zone run (above clip). To his credit, Jones did an excellent job of pressing the line of scrimmage, which sucked Vander Esch into the congestion in the middle of the defense. Once Jones bounced outside, Vander Esch was in poor position to react, allowing Jones to easily get to the edge and into space, resulting in another first-down run.

Smith, though he didn't play as poorly as Vander Esch, certainly didn't have his best game. In fact, a poor run fit allowed Jones to find his way into the end zone for his second score of the day at the end of the first quarter:

On this play, the Cowboys are running a gap exchange with Collins and Smith. Collins aligns in the backside B gap between the right guard and tackle before slanting into the backside A gap between the center and right guard. Smith is supposed to align over the backside A gap between the center and right guard and take over the backside B-gap responsibility.

Instead, Smith gets a bit lackadaisical and expands wide to the backside C gap outside of the right tackle, which is the same gap DeMarcus Lawrence occupies. This leaves the B gap vacated for Jones to run through on his way to pay dirt.

Now, there is a chance Lawrence was actually supposed to attack the tight end's block across the formation and spill Jones outside into Smith's arms. However, Lawrence's lack of urgency against the block gives the impression that he was already occupying his gap, which is why it appears to be Smith's responsibility.

Even at a reduced snap count, Lee wasn't free of fault, missing a tackle on second-and-short that led to a Packers first down on a drive that ended in a touchdown (above clip).

Overall, after a better-than-average performance against the Saints, the linebackers (and the front seven as a whole) were thoroughly taken advantage of by the Packers -- both against the run and pass.

That just can't happen to a unit that was supposed to be one of the best in football, and the Cowboys will continue to struggle on defense until it's fixed.

Brandon Knight has a legitimate future

It wasn't perfect by any means -- and he received a good deal of help via alignments and chips -- but rookie undrafted free agent Brandon Knight performed admirably in place of an injured La'el Collins.

Collins left the game with more than seven minutes left in the third quarter, but it should be noted that he wasn't exactly the dominant presence we'd seen in previous weeks. Whether it's because of his back issues or not, Collins was struggling to consistently stymie Green Bay's pass rush -- former Washington edge defender Preston Smith, in particular, gave Collins fits.

Brandon Knight's best blocks vs GB. pic.twitter.com/Qtlra7b9wM — All22Hype (@All22Hype) October 7, 2019

Given that Knight was a UDFA who was moved to guard before missing a large chunk of training camp with an injury, it's impossible not be impressed by his performance. Dallas was down big from the moment he stepped onto the field, so Knight didn't get many opportunities to run block, but he was mighty impressive in pass protection, given the circumstances. He did allow a couple of pressures off the right side and struggled a bit early, but he quickly calmed down and was much less of an issue than Cameron Fleming on the opposite side.

Despite his inexperience, Knight did a fantastic job of firing out of his stance and beating Green Bay pass rushers to the intersection point -- the point where a pass rusher's perceived path and the offensive lineman's pass set intersect.

Even more impressive is the fact that Knight stayed mindful not to overset despite consistently getting a jump on the Packers' edge defenders.

Oftentimes, young offensive linemen will work too far outside in those situations. Knight, however, stayed technically sound by maintaining his half-man responsibility. This allowed him to properly defend inside and power moves, which happen to be the fastest avenues to a sack. If the pass rushers opt to go outside, Knight is then able to run them beyond the apex of the pocket.

Once he got within striking range, Knight was surprisingly accurate, effective and powerful with his hands, as his strong strikes enabled him to distort the pass rusher's line to the quarterback.

Moreover, Knight showed good awareness to pass stunts off and take on new rushers.

Knight showed he has exciting athletic traits as well, displaying excellent foot speed to mirror speed rushes around the edge along with impressive balance to recover when initially put out of position. Balance also allows him to sustain blocks well when defenders try to string together counter moves.

Knight does need to develop more raw strength in an effort to improve his anchor and his footwork could use some tightening, but Sunday was a very promising debut for the Indiana product.

Altogether, on a day when the Cowboys didn't have much to be happy about, they can take solace in the performance of their undrafted rookie right tackle. Based on his showing, Knight has a bright future ahead of him.

Don't be surprised if Knight overtakes Fleming and becomes the primary swing tackle in the next year or two.

Enjoy this post? More film studies:

-- 3 Cowboys who have exceeded expectations, including an All-Pro caliber OL

-- 3 takeaways from Cowboys-Saints, including questionable a disconcerting Zeke trend

-- How Tony Pollard's flashes vs. Miami offered glance at Cowboys backfield's frightening potential

Twitter: @JohnOwning