The Green Bay Packers absolutely paraded the Dallas Cowboys in Jordan Love’s playoff debut in the Wild Card Round, crushing them 48:32. Now it’s time for the duel with the San Francisco 49ers.
Packers @ Cowboys: At a glance
- Jordan Love made an exclamation point in his first playoff start and with an ultra-efficient performance, the Cowboys defense was faced with impossible tasks. Aaron Jones also scored three touchdowns for the Packers.
- The Cowboys seemed tense from the start and made a lot of easy and later serious mistakes. Head coach Mike McCarthy’s play-calling in particular left a lot to be desired.
- The Packers made history with this success and created a real novelty in Plaoyff history.
Packers @ Cowboys: The Analysis
The Packers entered the game with tremendous determination and picked the ball after the successful coin toss. This was followed by a drive that lasted twelve plays and almost eight minutes and resulted in a touchdown by Aaron Jones. The key was a few precise passes under pressure from Jordan Love, who got the offense going with a 22-yard pass to Romeo Doubs.
The Cowboys, on the other hand, started nervously and noticeably tense. After punts on both sides, Dak Prescott threw an interception inside his own red zone – Jaire Alexander jumped against Brandin Cooks. A little later, Jones ran for his second touchdown. And as if that wasn’t enough, the visiting defense stopped Dallas once again and the offense marched unstoppably down the field again.
Ultimately, Love found Dontayvion Wicks for a 20-yard laser touchdown pass into the end zone to make it 20-0 in the second quarter. But things got even worse for the home team, as Prescott then threw a pick-six to Darnell Savage. The fact that the Cowboys then completed a furious drive with a running out clock with a touchdown was only because the Packers had stopped the clock again in front of their own end zone with an illegal contact. Prescott then found Jake Ferguson for the first Cowboys points of the game. Halftime score: Shocking 27:7 for Green Bay.
After the break, the Cowboys shortened the lead with nine points in the third quarter, but their own defense now completely fell apart, so that first Jones perfected his three-pack and then tight end Luke Musgrave completely opened up one after play action and a bad coverage bust A 38-yard touchdown catch came at the end of the third quarter that essentially decided the game. Everything after that was cosmetic.
Since the Packers are the seventh seed in the NFC, it is already certain that they will face the San Francisco 49ers in next weekend’s divisional game.
Green Bay Packers (#7) @ Dallas Cowboys (#2)
Result: 48:32 (7:0, 20:7, 14:9, 7:16) BOXSCORE
Packers @ Cowboys: Key stats
- Prescott had zero passing yards in the first quarter. This had never happened before in his NFL career.
- The 27-point deficit in the second quarter was the largest for the Cowboys in the playoffs since 1969. In addition, the Cowboys have never overcome a deficit of more than 21 points in their history. Their biggest playoff comeback was 18 points in 1972 against the 49ers.
- With his three touchdowns, Aaron Jones set the Packers’ playoff record. Previously, only Randall Cobb (2016), Ryan Grant (2017) and Sterling Sharpe (1993) achieved this in one game.
- Since the introduction of a third Wild Card per conference for the 2020 season, the Packers are the first #7 seed to win a Wild Card Game.
The star of the game: Jordan Love (quarterback, Packers)
Love played an outstanding game, showed great calm and great overview. His passes were also ultra-precise (+19 CPOE) and he played extremely efficiently (1.22 EPA/Play). He repeatedly set pinpricks, found his receivers even in tight passing windows and destroyed the Cowboys against the blitz. He was the main reason for this success.
The flop of the game: Dak Prescott (quarterback, Cowboys)
Of course, Prescott is not solely to blame for this embarrassment. But he seemed tense and unsettled from the start. He made an uncharacteristic number of mistakes, his passes were inaccurate and his otherwise strong connection with CeeDee Lamb basically didn’t work at all. Of course, he didn’t exactly benefit from Mike McCarthy’s poor play-calling…
Analysis: Packers @ Cowboys – that stood out tactically
- Whatever the Cowboys’ game plan was in the first half, it didn’t work. And especially after the 0:14 deficit, it included a lot of runs on early downs that yielded very little return. McCarthy then frequently tried 12-personnel to improve blocking. However, the Packers then countered with a massive 5-man front that closed any gaps.
- The Packers blitzed very little defensively and repeatedly varied their coverages between man and zone. This contributed to Prescott often appearing confused and imprecise and making many mistakes.
- The Cowboys, in turn, blitzed Love in half of his dropbacks and were punished again and again because the protection was good, he stayed calm and, if necessary, broke out of the pocket to buy more time. Before the break, he averaged 2.92 seconds to pass and even threw almost 20 percent of his passes into tight windows, which usually went well. LaFleur helped him especially with a lot of play action, which gave him extra time. However, these tendencies did not change much after the break.