Sunday Six-Pack: Jordan Love Leads Packers Past Cowboys in Playoff Upset
Just call him Heir Jordan.
Jordan Love's first career playoff start was under the microscope of America.
After a three-year waiting period, Love got his chance and ran with it.
The Green Bay Packers’ 48-32 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in an NFC wild-card playoff game on Sunday was a continuation of the lights-out football Love and the Packers have played for the last month. With a perfect passer rating until the final pass, Love earns the game ball in our weekly six-pack of awards.
Here's the rest of our awards.
Game Ball: Jordan Love
This is the NFL. Quarterbacks are judged on wins and losses.
That isn't fair, but that is the way it works.
Jordan Love was not supposed to be the better quarterback in this game. Dak Prescott is an MVP candidate, and may very well win the award when it is announced the night before the Super Bowl.
Love was a young quarterback coming into his first playoff start. No. 2 seeds were undefeated against No. 7 seeds since the NFL switched to the seven-team format a few years ago. The Cowboys had won 16 in a row at home.
All of those odds were stacked against Green Bay.
Love and the offense made it so it didn't matter.
The Packers took the ball first and put together a drive that Aaron Jones capped with the first of his three touchdowns.
Love took things from there.
For a quarterback staring down a defense coordinated by Dan Quinn and highlighted by Micah Parsons, Love never looked bothered.
He was calm and collected, just as he had been since the calendar turned to November.
He finished the day with three touchdown passes and would have had a perfect passer rating had he not had to re-entire the game in the final moments.
On a day when coach Matt LaFleur might have been tempted to try and protect his young quarterback, Love rewarded LaFleur's faith and aggression.
The Packers will face the San Francisco 49ers next week. They're the NFC's top seed, but the emergence of Love gives them a puncher's chance.
Lame Ball: Rashan Gary
The Packers' defense made enough plays to win against a prolific Dallas offense.
One thing they struggled with, however, was an option play that Dallas had drawn up with Rashan Gary in mind.
With minimal time left on the clock in the first half, the Cowboys trailed 27-0 and needed a touchdown.
The Packers could have snatched any momentum Dallas had with a stop on the final play of the half. Instead, Gary was victimized for a touchdown.
Gary got in the face of Prescott once in the first half to force an incompletion that led to Dallas' first punt of the day. Outside of that, Gary was quiet. He has not had a sack since Thanksgiving.
With the 49ers on deck, the Packers will need more from one of their best players.
Play of the Game: Darnell Savage Channels Tramon Williams
Everyone remembers what happened 13 years ago on Monday.
On Jan. 15, 2011, the Packers faced the Atlanta Falcons in their home building.
With the Falcons driving before halftime, they were looking to cut off more yardage for a makeable field goal.
Tramon Williams had other ideas, intercepting Matt Ryan’s pass and returning it for a touchdown to take a 28-14 lead before halftime.
Darnell Savage saw a similar opportunity with Dak Prescott on the other side.
The Cowboys trailed 20-0 and were trying to cut into Green Bay's lead.
With a bonus possession coming at the start of the second half, the Cowboys could have seen a path to the score being 20-14 by the next time the Packers touched the ball.
Savage saw Prescott stare down CeeDee Lamb and ensured the game would never get within one possession.
He broke on the ball and Prescott hit him in stride. Once Savage was done running, the score was 27-0 and the home crowd was stunned.
Pivot Point: Aaron Jones Answers
The Cowboys had scored 10 unanswered points after a touchdown late in the first half was followed by a Brandon Aubrey field goal on the first possession of the second half.
While the score was still 27-10, it was one year ago today that the Jacksonville Jaguars erased a 27-7 deficit in the wild-card round.
There would be no symmetry.
Jordan Love found Romeo Doubs, who went over 150 receiving yards for 46 yards. Aaron Jones scored his third touchdown of the game two plays later.
Any hope Dallas had of Green Bay folding was gone on that drive.
Love's Company
Jordan Love was going to be the center of attention regardless of what happened on Sunday.
If they won, he would have been praised and pronounced as the next big thing. A loss would lead to questions about whether he could win in the playoffs.
That's just the nature of being a quarterback in the NFL.
Love has had a tough act to follow his entire career.
In Brett Favre's first playoff start, he threw for 204 yards and an iconic touchdown to Sterling Sharpe to win their first playoff game since the 1980s.
Aaron Rodgers' first playoff start didn't end in victory, but he had one of the all-time great performances in a 51-45 loss on Wild Card Weekend against the Arizona Cardinals.
Love was dazzling in the first half. He was 13-of-16 passing for 185 yards and a pretty touchdown pass to Dontayvion Wicks.
He looked calm and in command from the first snap of the game.
He threw the knockout punch late in the third quarter. With the Packers leading 34-16, Love rolled to his left and found Luke Musgrave with the nearest defender standing in Houston.
Musgrave scored, and it was all over but the crying for the home team.
Love finished the day with 16-of-21 passing with 272 yards, three touchdown passes, and a near-perfect passer rating of 157.2.
More importantly, he got the win, something that his predecessor learned often eludes quarterbacks making their first playoff start.
Looking Ahead
After playing in a place the Packers where the Packers have had a lot of success, they'll head to one of their house of horrors.
The Packers have not lost at AT&T Stadium since it opened. That includes two wins over the Cowboys in the playoffs and another in the Super Bowl.
The Packers dominated most of the 1990s against the 49ers, but have had little success since.
Terrell Owens broke the stranglehold the Packers had over the 49ers with what they've called The Catch II.
The Packers won a playoff game at Lambeau Field against Jeff Garcia in 2002 but have not beaten them in the postseason since.
They lost twice to Jim Harbaugh and Colin Kaepernick, with one game coming at each stadium.
Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers lost twice to Jimmy Garoppolo and Kyle Shanahan, with one game at each stadium, as well.
This is a new era for the Packers, but they may face what could San Francisco's best team since Shanahan came to town.
With Love and the offense rolling the way it is, the Packers have a chance, but it will take their best effort to reverse the trend of the last four playoff meetings.
