'Cut the Cheese!' Dallas Cowboys Can Learn 4 Lessons from Green Bay Packers Playoff Loss History
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The Dallas Cowboys are set to embark on another championship run on Sunday late afternoon but a familiar foe stands in their path: Dallas will open NFC Wild Card action at AT&T Stadium against the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers (3:30 p.m. CT, Fox), setting the stages for the ninth postseason meeting between the stars and G's.
With this ninth get-together, the Cowboys and Packers will stand as the most common playoff pairing in NFL history, tied with Dallas' duels with San Francisco and the Los Angeles Rams. With a win, Green Bay's showings with the San Francisco 49ers will take over the spot, as they'll head to the Bay Area should they prevail at AT&T Stadium on Sunday.
To date, the Cowboys and Packers have split their prior eight meetings. With that in mind, the modern edition can break the tie if they recall lessons learned from the four defeats ...
1966
The Game: 1966 NFL Championship
The Cowboys-Packers rivalry is literally as old as the Super Bowl: the two teams did battle for the first edition of what was then known as the AFL-NFL World Championship Game on New Year's Day in 1967.
It was a celebratory time for the metroplex, as Southern Methodist University had partaken in the Cotton Bowl Classic against Georgia the day before. Both games were held at the eponymous stadium.
The Dallas-based dramatics, however, failed to smile upon the locals against opponents with oval G's on their helmets: SMU's Mustangs fell to the Bulldogs 24-9 while the Cowboys lost in a 34-27 heartbreaker, allowing the Packers to obtain professional football bragging rights against the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs two weeks later.
The Lesson: Raise the pressure and trust your stars.
While any quarterback discussion comparing stars of yesterday to the modern game centers on the idea of "things are different" (look no further than, say, Joe Namath's ugly touchdown-to-interception ratio) Bart Starr lived up to his namesake and then some, posting a 19-of-28, 304-yard, four-touchdown outing that wouldn't be out of place in a 2024 game.
Dallas was able to keep the game close thanks in part to an equally dangerous pass rush that earned five sacks long before the statistic's official birthday. The active Cowboys better do the same to Jordan Love on Sunday, especially with his modern mobile abilities posing a unique threat.
Additionally, the Cowboys had to get away from using star receiver Bob Hayes, who earned just one yard on a single catch. While it was inspiring to see players like Frank Clarke step up, the Cowboys will be better off if they can get the ball to CeeDee Lamb on a regular basis during Sunday's game.
Malcolm Emmons, USA TODAY SPORTS
1967
The Game: 1967 NFL Championship ... a.k.a. The Ice Bowl
In a game that some would advocate to be played at, say, Fiserv Forum in this day and age, the Cowboys and Packers famously did battle on the literally frozen tundra of Lambeau Field for a berth in Super Bowl II.
With temperatures dipping all the way to 15 below zero and wind chills that made McMurdo Station look Club Med, the Cowboys and Packers engaged in chilly combat that rivaled the first act of "The Empire Strikes Back." Though Dallas took a late 17-14 lead through aerial trickery from midfield, the Packers famously paved the path to their second Super Bowl in as many seasons with Bart Starr's famous quarterback sneak in the final frozen stages.
The Lesson: Defense wins championships.
Though modern NFL scoreboards resemble pinball machines, cold weather often creates an equalizing sensation. Look no further than Saturday night's icy playoff tilt between the Kansas Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins: the Chiefs handily handled South Beach by a 26-7 final, but their sixth-seeded visitors lingered in the game thanks to strong defensive efforts and uncertainty surrounding the frigid Missouri atmosphere.
Weather obviously won't play a favor under the pair of expensive umbrellas at AT&T Stadium, but the Dallas defense can provide a similarly offsetting effect. On paper, things probably never should've come down to Starr's sterling sneak, with Green Bay used to the cold and boasting one of the most prolific units on both sides of the ball.
Indeed, the Packers went ahead by two scores in the early going and held the Cowboys to 192 yards on the day (admittedly in an era where posts like that were far more common). But the Cowboys set the tone for an upset with 10 second quarter points despite not earning a single first down: Willie Townes' sack and strip of Starr led to George Andrie returning it for a touchdown while Phil Clark's recovery of a muffed punt led to a field goal, keeping the deficit at a manageable 14-10 before Dan Reeves trickery led to a 50-yard aerial score for Lance Rentzel.
Little more needs to be said about the Doomsday Defefense's successors, headlined by the pass rushing talents of Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence, which are backed up by ballhawks like DaRon Bland. Just because modern football embraces the shootout doesn't mean the Cowboys have to partake.
Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
2014
The Game: 2014-15 NFL Divisional
The 2014 Cowboys put up the last championship push of the Tony Romo era and likely featured its most legitimate shot at a Vince Lombardi Trophy hoist. Dallas won each of its final four regular season games to steal the NFC East crown before surviving a Wild Card scare against Detroit, setting the stage for a Divisional clash with the Pack.
Dallas fans hardly need a reminder of what came next, as the ensuing 60 minutes were defined only by the mantra "Dez Caught It." The NFL eventually agreed though the delayed retraction was of little use to the Cowboys, who were denied a chance to reinfiltrate a Seattle fortress where they previously prevailed in thrilling fashion over the eventual conference champion Seahawks during the regular season.
Seattle's dogfight with the New England Patriots in the following Super Bowl only further bolsters and distorts the Dallas dream of what might've been.
The Lesson: Don't rely on the refs.
Buried beneath every call that supposedly "costs" a team a game are multiple opportunities for the team in question to win it themselves. Alas for North Texas, Dallas was no exception.
The officials' costly misinterpretation indirectly removed the spotlight from DeMarco Murray, whose fumble on the opening possession of the second half led to a Green Bay field as Dallas sought to expand on a 14-10 halftime lead. Even after Bryant's catch, the Cowboys still had four-plus minutes to wrangle the ball back and failed thanks in part to two costly third-down conversions (including Aaron Rodgers' 12-yard throw to Randall Cobb on third-and-11 that sealed the deal just after the two-minute warning).
Dallas and its NFL brethren can only rely on themselves to do their job. If it's relying on the overseers to handle their business, the battle is over before it truly begins.
USA TODAY SPORTS
2016
The Game: 2016-17 NFL Divisional
Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott were offered rude welcomes to the NFL postseason after winning 13 games and the NFC East crown in their daring debuts.
The unrelated Richard Rodgers had proven equally detrimental to the Cowboys' postseason fate as Aaron has been: he scored the game-winning touchdown in the aforementioned DCI showdown and opened Green Bay scoring when they visited AT&T Stadium for a divisional rematch two seasons later. Combined with two short Ty Montgomery rushing scores, the Packers built a 21-3 lead before the Cowboys knew what hit them.
To their credit, Prescott and Elliott dragged the Cowboys back with a little help from Bryant, tying the game twice before two 50-plus yard triples from Mason Crosby sang their doom to the tune of a 34-31 defeat. If Bryant didn't "catch it," then Jared Cook certainly did, making a sliding grab from the arm of Rodgers to set up the latter Crosby deep-ball.
The Lesson: Get off to a good start.
With its unspoken but quite apparent loyalty to the offensive side of the ball, it feels like no lead is safe in the modern NFL. Dallas' high-octane offense allows it to not only survive but flourish. That, however, doesn't mean that they should force them to shoot off fireworks in the name of making a comeback.
Dallas has a defense very much capable of keeping a Green Bay offense still in the process of finding itself despite a spicy finish in check while the offense handles business in the early going. They must take advantage to not only silence critics but to put the idea of an upset out of the Packers' heads as soon as possible.
After all, how can Prescott and the Cowboys be the offense labeled by the manta of "Here We Gooooo" ... and not go?
