Cowboys Coach Mike McCarthy Failed Revenge: Packers Kick Dallas in OT
On his birthday weekend, what do you give a man who has everything?
If that man is coach Mike McCarthy, you give him a victory over his old employer, the only team that previous to Sunday NFL Week 10 he'd yet to beat, the Green Bay Packers.
Unhappy Birthday, Big Mike. Green Bay 31, Dallas 28 in OT. ... in what turns out to be an epically historic collapse.
McCarthy's inaugural return to Lambeau Field - to the place from which the Packers ejected him after 13 years, leaving him to eventually oversee a Dallas team that was a favorite here - was supposed to allow him to exorcise ghosts, gain revenge, and allow the Cowboys to register a rare win over fading legend Aaron Rodgers.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
"Revenge''? Publicly, McCarthy didn't much go there. But we know he gave a history-lesson type speech to his team to start the week on Monday. And we suspect there were inspirational words uttered in a hotel ballroom somewhere in Appleton, Wisconsin on game's eve.
Said QB Dak Prescott before the Cowboys traveled to Green Bay: "I honestly can't wait for his Saturday night speech ... He knows I've got his back. This is important for us to go out there and represent him."
And that, McCarthy's players ... well, almost did that.
Prescott (27-of-46 for 265 yards with three TDs, two INTs and a 78.6 passer rating, Cee Dee Lamb (11 catches for 150 yards and two TDs) and Tony Pollard (22 carries for 115 yards and a TD) put up numbers but made just enough mistakes, the Cowboys run defense made virtually every mistake, and Rodgers revived himself with a trio of TD passes to rookie Christian Watson, all leading up to Green Bay overcoming a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to finally win it with an OT field goal.
How queer was it for Dallas to fold like this? Entering this game, the Cowboys were 195-0 all-time (playoffs included) when leading by 14 points through three quarters.
Yup ... now 195-1.
Cowboys Nation can keep thinking about the desired signing of big-name free agent receiver Odell Beckham Jr., and that could help 6-3 Dallas. This team can also tinker with what it does in terms of X's and O's, especially defensively, to try to fix those problems. But once again - with Rodgers now 8-2 in starts against "America's Team'' - maybe it just needs to be accepted as the way things simply are.
Aaron Rodgers, no matter what, beats Dallas. And the times when he does so come around about as regularly as a birthday.
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