Cowboys Crash, Burn In Playoffs
It doesn’t matter if the Cowboys are the fourth seed, the fifth seed or the second seed, like this season, the result is still the same – a playoff exit on a dud of a performance. Green Bay took the opening kickoff and proceeded to put an ass whipping on the home team to advance to the divisional round of the postseason with a 48-32 win over Dallas at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The Cowboys are now 1-3 under head coach Mike McCarthy in the playoffs.
STUPID MISTAKES SET TONE EARLY
With all the pressure squarely on their shoulders as the No. 2 seed and playing at home, the Cowboys cracked under the pressure.
Dallas looked unprepared for their Wild Card game with Green Bay from the opening kickoff.
They made multiple mental mistakes in the first half that the Cowboys could not overcome.
On the packers opening drive, the defense was called for two penalties – a defensive holding on DaRon Bland to keep the drive alive early and an offsides by DeMarcus Lawrence. Lawrence jumped early in the count, that moved the ball to the Dallas four and Aaron Jones scored the Packers first touchdown of the game on the next play.
After a punt by Dallas, the Cowboys mental mistakes continued with a Sam Williams kick-catch interference on the punt.
The offense got into the mix on the next drive when quarterback Dak Prescott was off target to Brandin Cooks and Jaire Alexander came down with the interception at the Dallas xx. The
Sam Williams kick catch interference at the GB9. Moved them to the GB 24 to start the drive.
Bad throw by Dak, intercepted at the Dallas 19. The Packers scored their second touchdown just three plays later.
By the time the Cowboys settled in, they were down 27-0 and in full scramble mode.
It didn’t improve in the second half, as they continued to make errors. They cost themselves three points with a pair of penalties – illegal man downfield on center Tyler Biadasz and an accepted offensive pass interference on wide receiver Jalen Tolbert, on a successful two-point try. Dallas settled for the extra-point try, but Aubrey hit it off the upright and the Cowboys trailed 34-16.
PASS DEFENSE TORCHED BY LOVE
The Cowboys pass defense was torched from the opening drive.
In his first playoff start, Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love looked like the savvy veteran. He completed 16 of 21 passes for 272 yards and three touchdowns, while compiling a 157.2 quarterback rating.
Love, who was sacked 30 times in the regular season, had plenty of time in the pocket to pick the Cowboys pass defense apart.
Wide receiver Romeo Doubs (six catches for 151 yards) and tight end Luke Musgrave (three catches for 52 yards) were his favorite targets, with each hauling in a touchdown pass in the win.
In the first half, Love had all day to throw the football and he made the Cowboys pass defense pay repeatedly. Love completed 13 of 16 passes for 185 yards and one touchdown in the first half against a soft zone the Cowboys hadn’t played much of during the season.
Love sat back, with little pressure in his face, and completed passes to seven different receivers – Doubs, Wicks, Tucker Kraft, Luke Musgrave, Aaron Jones, Christian Watson and Bo Melton in the opening 30 minutes.
Doubs did the most damage, with four catches for 102 yards, including a 39-yard catch and run.
PRESCOTT INVISIBLE ON BIGGEST STAGE
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott picked the wrong game to have the worst passing/decision making day of the season.
Prescott threw two interceptions in the first half – including one that was returned for a 64-yard touchdown, while completing just 13 of 21 passes to his own team for just 87 yards and putting his team in a hole they could not climb out of on Sunday.
Despite a big fourth quarter against the Green Bay backups, Prescott finished the game completing 41 of 60 passes for 403 yards, with three touchdowns, two interceptions and an 89.8 quarterback rating.
After Jaire Alexander intercepted Prescott on the Cowboys second drive of the game, Darnell Savage stopped the Cowboys best drive of the first half. Trailing 20-0 and the Cowboys inside Packers territory, Savage stepped in front of a slant meant for CeeDee Lamb and took it untouched 64 yards to put Green Bay in front 27-0 with under two minutes to play in the opening half. Prescott did lead the Cowboys to their only touchdown of the first half to cut the Packers lead to 27-7 on the final play of the opening 30 minutes – a 1-yard touchdown pass to Jake Ferguson.
DIFFERENT DAYS FOR LAMB, FERGUSON
The Cowboys got two distinctly different performances from two of their main pass catchers on Sunday afternoon.
Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb didn’t look like a guy that just amassed career numbers over 17 games, while tight end Jake Ferguson had the best game of his season.
Lamb, who set franchise records for catches and yards in a season, dropped the first two passes that came his way on Sunday, before finishing the first half with two catches on seven targets for 18 yards. Lamb finished with eight catches on 19 targets for 110 yards, the ninth 100-plus yard game of his season. However, it all came after the Cowboys were out of it in the second half.
Ferguson was a different story.
The Cowboys tight end caught 10 of 12 targets for 93 yards. It is the most passes he has caught in a game in this 2-year career, as well as the most yards he has had in a game this season.
Ferguson also caught two fourth-quarter touchdown passes and a had a two-point catch called back on an offensive penalty.
COWBOYS RUN DEFENSE A NO-SHOW
Green Bay running back Aaron Jones was unstoppable.
Jones carried the ball 21 times for 118 yards and three touchdowns, while the team finished with 144 yards on 32 carries in the Packers torching of the Cowboys.
Jones had eight runs of 5-yards or more, including six of those in the second half and the Cowboys trying to get back into the game.
It is the fourth straight game of more than 100 yards rushing for Jones, but it is the first time this season that he has scored more than one touchdown in a game. Jones had two total rushing touchdowns coming into the game.
It is the 11th time this season the Cowboys have allowed an opponent to rush for more than 100 yards – New York Giants (108 yards, 111 yards), Arizona (222 yards), San Francisco (170 yards), Philadelphia (109 yards, 106 yards), Carolina (110 yards), Washington (106 yards), Buffalo (266 yards) and Detroit (125 yards).
BONUS: COWBOYS OUTCOACHED IN ALL PHASES
On paper, the Cowboys came in with a better offense, defense and special teams, but they were outcoached on the field.
Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur had all the answers, and showed exactly why the Packers hired him as the head coach immediately after parting ways with Mike McCarthy after the 2019 season.
Both head coaches called the plays on offense, where the Packers rolled up 416 total yards, while Dallas scrambled to get to 510 yards, most coming after the team trailed by 24 points in the second half.
Defensively, the Packers mixed up their pass coverage so well that quarterback Dak Prescott was confused for most of the afternoon.
LaFleur and the Packers did such a good job of making the Cowboys look pathetic in all areas, that he was allowed to sit his starters midway through the fourth quarter of a playoff game.
The loss, despite three straight 12-5 regular seasons, probably signals the end of the Mike McCarthy era in Dallas. The Cowboys fall to 1-3 in the playoffs under McCarthy and have failed to advance past the Wild Card round for the second time.
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BIG HUGE GIANT MONSTER Play of the Game
Hard to believe that the biggest play of the game for the Cowboys came on the second play of game, but it did. After a 0-yard run to start the game on first down by Aaron Jones, the Cowboys defense looked to get their first sack of the game when Chauncey Golston and Donovan Wilson met at Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love for a 5-yard loss. However, Dallas defensive back DaRon Bland was called for defensive holding that erased the sack and gave Green Bay a new set of downs. The Packers then marched 70 yards on 11 plays to score the game’s first touchdown and give Green Bay a lead they would never relinquish. The Cowboys would not come close to sacking Jordan Love again in the blowout loss.