Packers shock Cowboys, set to face 49ers in divisional spherical

ARLINGTON, Texas — The NFC’s No. 2-seeded Dallas Cowboys got here into Sunday’s wild-card sport as heavy favorites towards the No. 7-seeded Inexperienced Bay Packers, however they had been by no means even within the sport.

The Packers scored on their first possession, constructed a 27-0 lead by half time and by no means regarded again on the way in which to a 48-32 victory.

Inexperienced Bay now heads west to face the top-seeded San Francisco 49ers subsequent week within the divisional spherical.

After as soon as once more going 12-5 within the common season and never advancing within the playoffs, the Cowboys head into the offseason going through questions concerning the futures of coach Mike McCarthy, quarterback Dak Prescott and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.

Inexperienced Bay Packers

These aren’t the younger Packers anymore. They’re Jordan Love’s Packers.

In his first playoff sport, the first-year beginning quarterback — surrounded by the youngest group of pass-catchers within the NFL — turned in a efficiency for the ages in Sunday’s win over the Cowboys.

As if Love’s spectacular common season — with 32 landing passes, second within the NFL solely to Prescott — wasn’t sufficient to excite a corporation that is making an attempt to strike quarterback gold for the third straight time (Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre), then Sunday’s sheer dominance ought to do the trick.

Love completed 16-of-21 for 272 yards and three touchdowns with a 157.2 passer ranking.

He joins Baker Mayfield (48 factors) and Rodgers (45) as the one quarterbacks within the Tremendous Bowl period to guide their crew to a minimum of 40 factors on the highway of their first playoff begin.

Describe the sport in two phrases: Upset Metropolis. The Packers, who needed to win their regular-season finale simply to make it to the postseason, had been 7.5-point underdogs, which made this the franchise’s largest upset win within the playoffs for the reason that 1995 divisional spherical, when the Packers gained at San Francisco as 10-point underdogs.

Promising pattern I: Think about if the Packers had Aaron Jones all season; they could have been internet hosting playoff video games. After lacking six regular-season video games (three due to a hamstring and three for a knee damage), the working again entered the playoffs on a streak of three straight 100-yard speeding video games.

Jones on Sunday rushed for 118 yards and scored 3 times — together with the sport’s first two touchdowns — persevering with a run of dominance over the Cowboys. He now has 9 touchdowns in 4 profession video games towards Dallas.

Promising pattern II: Who wants a clear-cut No. 1 receiver? Apparently not Love. Romeo Doubs turned the third totally different receiver in as many video games to go over 100 yards. Doubs hit that mark within the first half towards the Cowboys and completed with six catches for 151 yards and a landing. Final week, it was Jayden Reed (112 yards) towards the Bears. The week earlier than, it was Bo Melton (105) towards the Vikings.

Pivotal play(s): Earlier than Sunday, neither Jaire Alexander nor Darnell Savage had an interception this season. That each one modified within the first half. Alexander, who was questionable due to an ankle damage, picked off Prescott deep in Cowboys territory to arrange Jones’ second landing that made it a 14-0 lead. Then, on the primary play after the two-minute warning within the first half, Savage snagged one and returned it 64 yards for a 27-0 lead with 1:50 left within the second quarter. It was the Packers’ first defensive landing in a playoff sport for the reason that 2012 divisional spherical at San Francisco, when Sam Shields had a pick-six.

Eye-popping NFL Subsequent Gen stat: Savage reached a max pace of 20.82 mph on his pick-six. That was the third-fastest pace on any Packers landing this season. — Rob Demovsky

Subsequent sport: at San Francisco 49ers on Jan. 20 or 21.

Dallas Cowboys

A season that regarded filled with promise — a 3rd straight 12-5 end, an NFC East title and a path to an NFC Championship Sport with two video games at AT&T Stadium, the place the Cowboys went 8-0 within the common season — ended with such a thud that solely questions stay.

The Cowboys had been dismantled by the Packers in each method attainable.

This results in questions on coach Mike McCarthy’s future, quarterback Dak Prescott’s long-term viability and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s potential departure. That is what occurs when there may be such a putrid efficiency that it was the biggest house playoff loss in franchise historical past. The earlier worst was a 38-14 loss to the Cleveland Browns within the 1969 Jap Championship Sport.

Since making their final look in a convention championship sport in 1995, the Cowboys have eight one-and-done playoff appearances. They’ve achieved it because the No. 1 seed twice (2007, 2016) and now because the No. 2 seed.

Describe the sport in two phrases: Completely pitiful. With the prospect to get to an NFC Championship Sport through two house video games, the Cowboys laid down within the first half, trailing 27-0 at one level.

QB breakdown: Prescott threw two interceptions within the first half, together with one which was returned for a landing that upped the Inexperienced Bay result in 27-0. The final time a Cowboys quarterback gave up a pick-six within the playoffs was when Troy Aikman did it within the 1994 NFC Championship Sport.

Prescott had one multi-interception sport within the common season (three at San Francisco). It was his second multipick playoff sport up to now two years. Prescott, who led the league with 36 landing passes, by no means regarded snug towards a Packers protection that had not been thought of elite at any level of the season. His reference to receiver CeeDee Lamb was lacking, particularly within the first half after they did not hook up on 4 passes. Prescott was 13-of-13 on throws to Lamb within the regular-season finale, and he was 9-of-18 Sunday.

Pivotal play: Let’s return to the third play of the sport. The Cowboys had Inexperienced Bay in a second-and-13 state of affairs, and Jordan Love discovered receiver Romeo Doubs for 22 yards in an enormous gap within the Dallas protection with zero strain on him. 9 performs later, the Packers took a lead they would not relinquish. The Doubs catch was an indication of issues to return, as a result of the Cowboys could not guard him all sport. Within the first three quarters, he had catches of twenty-two, 26, 39, 15 and 46 yards. The Cowboys had 9 video games this season wherein they didn’t enable 4 go performs of 20 yards. Doubs had that by himself in three quarters.

Troubling pattern: Quinn doesn’t need to see offenses from the Kyle Shanahan tree. Packers coach Matt LaFleur might need been on Quinn’s workers in Atlanta, however he picked up his offense from Shanahan, now the 49ers’ head coach. Shanahan has beat the Cowboys in every of the previous three seasons, together with 42-10 this season at San Francisco. Miami’s Mike McDaniel, who coached beneath Shanahan in San Francisco, was in a position to get the most effective of Quinn in December. LaFleur had Quinn’s protection on a string all day, whether or not the Cowboys had been in man or zone protection or whether or not they blitzed or performed protection. — Todd Archer

Subsequent sport: The Cowboys’ 2023 season is over.