This is the most runs allowed in a playoff game in Cowboys history. The loss extended the franchise's streak of not appearing in the NFC Championship Game, let alone the Super Bowl, to 28 years.
They went undefeated at home in the regular season, winning 16 straight at home, but it was an embarrassing performance from start to finish. The Cowboys were simply overwhelmed on offense, overwhelmed on defense, and lost to the Packers.
Despite playing in the first postseason game of his career, Jordan Love was virtually unstoppable, tearing through the Dallas defense and gaining 272 passing yards, doing his best to imitate Aaron Rodgers. . He completed 76.2 of his attempts, with three touchdowns, no interceptions, and no sacks, earning a near-perfect 157.2 quarterback rating.
And benefiting from Love's success turned out to be a somewhat unlikely goal. Romeo Dubs never reached 100 yards in his young career, but in this game he caught six passes for 151 yards and one touchdown.
And when Love and the others weren't causing problems through the air, Aaron Jones led the Cowboys with 118 rushing yards on 21 carries, an average of 5.6 yards per carry, and three scores of his own. They were running over it and around it. .
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, the stars of the Cowboys' offense – quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb – struggled throughout most of the first half. Prescott completed 13 of 21 attempts for 87 yards, including one touchdown and two interceptions, both of which resulted in touchdowns for the Packers, but he finished the first 30 minutes with a passer rating of 47.2. finished. Lamb only had two grabs for 18 yards.
The two were able to find some rhythm in the second half, but it wasn't enough. Prescott earned an 89.8 rating with 403 passing yards, three touchdown tosses, and two costly interceptions, while Lamb completed nine passes for 110 yards. Michael Gallup also gained 103 yards, and tight end Jake Ferguson broke the century mark by setting career highs in catches (10), receiving yards (93) and touchdown grabs (3).
Needless to say, Dallas didn't get off to a great start. The Packers won the coin toss and elected to receive, hoping to put the Cowboys on the back foot early. They did it. Helped by two Dallas penalties, Green Bay took its opening possession and went 75 yards in 12 plays with 7 minutes, 52 seconds remaining. Love completed all four pass attempts for 42 yards, and Jones gained 25 yards on the ground and scored his first score of the game with a 3-yard punch across the goal line on his final carry. did.
Then, after a punt trade that left the Cowboys reversed at their own 8-yard line, disaster struck. On the third snap of the series, Prescott attempted to throw a dart to Brandin Cooks on a diagonal route, but the pass didn't reach its intended target, and cornerback Jaire Alexander instead dived for an interception. The ball that gave Green Bay a score was at the Dallas 19-yard line.
At the end of the quarter, the Cowboys led 108 yards to 32, and the visitors had possession from 11:04 to 3:56.
If the first quarter was bad, the second quarter wasn't even worse. Two plays into the box gave the Packers an unexpected two-touchdown lead, and Jones scored his second score of the game from 1 yard left.
Dallas was then able to get across midfield to the Green Bay 35-yard line, but quickly lost seven yards on the next two plays and fell out of field goal range, forcing a punt. The Packers then had to start at their own 7-yard line, 93 yards from the goal line. Love easily picked through the Cowboys' defense, completing all six of his passes for 89 yards, his last being a 20-yard off-the-back throw to Dontaevion Wicks that continued into the end zone. Despite missing the extra point, Green Bay led 20-0.
Make it 27-0. Trying to find some kind of spark, the Cowboys instead dug deeper into the whole thing. Back in the opposition's half, Prescott tried to connect with Lamb on the first play after the two-minute warning, but safety Darnell Savage stepped in front of the pass and allowed his second interception of the game. With nothing but wide open space in front of him, he ran an untouched 64 yards and scored a pick-six touchdown.
The Cowboys would get the ball at the start of the third quarter and desperately needed to score before the end of the first half. And Dallas, who took over with 1 minute 43 seconds left in the quarter, was indeed finally able to play.
The 12-play, 55-yard drive ended with the Cowboys looking to score from the 1-yard line with two seconds left. Prescott rolled to his right and fired a pass to Jake Ferguson for a touchdown, and the home team went into the break down 27-7.
Things looked somewhat promising as the Cowboys came out of the locker room and quickly made their way toward the Packers' 16-yard line. However, the drive stalled there, and Dallas was forced to settle for a 34-yard field goal, which definitely needed a touchdown at this point.
And even more so when Green Bay responded by actually getting to the end zone. Jones got the handoff on four of five plays for a 29-yard gain, but the big blow came when Love found Dubs wide open for a 46-yard gain. Still, Jones became the leading scorer with a 9-yard run from right guard to the goal line.
Sadly, this meant the Packers' lead could no longer be overturned, although the Cowboys had no intention of giving up the fight. Prescott and his teammates went on a long 11-play, 88-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Tony Pollard. Dallas appeared to have completed the two-point conversion when Prescott fed a pass to Ferguson, but two offensive penalties were called and the play was nullified. Pushed back to Green Bay's own 25-yard line, the Cowboys asked Brandon Aubrey to kick the extra point instead, but he immediately slammed it into his right upright to no avail.
While the Dallas offense was having at least some success, the defense was doing nothing to stop the Packers offense. Green Bay had advanced to the Cowboys' 38-yard line when Love started bootlegging from the left, only to throw it back to the right to a wide-open Luke Musgrave. It was obvious that the coverage was flying, and the tight end had no one close to him, so he easily scored a touchdown and took a 41-16 lead going into the fourth quarter.
After Dallas failed to convert on fourth-and-5 at its own 41-yard line, the Packers used eight plays to add seven more points. Jones started the game with a 19-yard run, then Dubbs completed a 3-yard pass for a touchdown.
It didn't have much of an impact on the final result, but Prescott and Ferguson connected on two touchdown passes before the end of the game. The first score was a 7-yard catch where Rico Doodle rushed in from left guard to add the two-point conversion, capping an 11-play, 75-yard drive.
On the next series, Dallas went 91 yards in just four plays, thanks in part to Lamb's 47-yard completion. However, Ferguson scored a touchdown, a 14-yarder, the first multi-touchdown game of his career.
But of course it was too little, too late. The Cowboys were unable to recover onside kick attempts after both scores, but got the ball back one more time before the end of the game. But it didn't make for at least a slightly more respectable score, and Prescott's last-gasp Hail Mary missed the back of the end zone.
The game ended mercifully, and the Cowboys' promising season ended in yet another disappointment.
