On Sunday the Green Bay Packers won a huge game for the franchise with a second half comeback that was enough to beat the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field.
Is this the day for the Cowboys? In a complete reversal from the Ice Bowl, Sunday was warmer than it was expected to be. In fact, in going out for the morning paper, I was stunned to find it 25 degrees. That is about 10 degrees warmer than it was all week. Strangely, on Monday we were right back to 15 degrees for a high.
12:52, 1st Quarter – Here is something different. The Packers started the game by kicking off for once and they were rewarded for the change with a three and out by the Cowboys.
On first down, the Packers lined up in their base defense, as expected. Tony Romo turned and handed it to DeMarco Murray. Sam Barrington shot his gap and got into the backfield. Murray chose A.J. Hawk’s gap instead and bulled Hawk for a 5-yard gain. On second down, the Packers remained in their base, but the regular nickel tandem of Clay Matthews and Barrington were your inside linebackers. When Murray got a handoff to test the left side, Matthews ran into the backfield and forced Murray to the edge where Barrington forced him out of bounds for no gain.
On 3rd and 5, the Packers had their dime defense on the field, but they lined up Brad Jones at the line of scrimmage with Matthews in Jones’ normal position in the middle of the defensive backfield. When Matthews moved up to rush from off the right edge, it became a five-man blitz. Julius Peppers made his first big play of these playoffs by knocking the ball from Romo’s hands. On top of that, when Romo managed to pick the ball up, Peppers tripped him up while laying on the ground. Good thing too, since every Cowboy receiver but Dez Bryant was open on this play — especially Murray, who was completely uncovered when he released. Punt.
8:30, 1st Quarter – The Packers offense started the same as they did against the Lions — with a drive for a touchdown powered by the running game.
Throughout the drive, the Packers lined up with Eddie Lacy and John Kuhn in the offset I with Rodgers right in front of Lacy. On 2nd and 11, Aaron Rodgers threw a perfect back-shoulder, believe it or not, to Jordy Nelson for a first down. In fact, the elusive back-shoulder pass would actually work twice in this game.
On the next play, the Packers caught the Cowboys on a linebacker blitz over the left side with a Lacy run to the right. Safety J.J. Wilcox came down to try to cover for Rolando McClain, who ran himself right out of the play, only to have Randall Cobb trap him to the inside. Leading the way, John Kuhn didn’t even have anyone to block for about 15 yards. If Lacy would have followed Kuhn, he would have gotten more, but as it was, he got 20 yards.
Two plays later, Lacy followed Kuhn again over the right side and broke it back across the field for a 10-yard gain, down to the Cowboys’ 16. After two more runs out of the no huddle gave the Packers 1st and goal at the 4, they eventually faced an important 3rd and goal from there. The Packers lined up with Cobb in the backfield, Andrew Quarless lined up alone wide left and three receivers lined up to the right. Rodgers looked right after the snap, but the Cowboys were doubling Nelson and had tight coverage on Davante Adams and Jarrett Boykin. Cobb was open on the quick out, but there was no guarantee he’d make the end zone. Rodgers scrambled up the middle briefly before flicking the ball straight ahead to Quarless, who was slanting across the field. Quarless made the catch to put the Packers ahead 7-0.
1:05, 1st Quarter – We’ve seen this before, as the Cowboys answered with a touchdown drive of their own to make the score 7-7.
The Cowboys’ drive, of course, was helped by a decent kick return and good starting field position. Dwayne Harris was able to field the kickoff at the 8-yard line and broke several tackles while advancing up the left sideline, bringing the ball to the Cowboys’ 38.
From there, the Cowboys would go 62 yards in 12 plays, taking up nearly seven and a half minutes of clock. The drive appeared to be a three and out after Romo threw an incomplete pass near Murray’s feet on 3rd and 4. However, a defensive holding call on Brad “One Man Wrecking Crew” Jones gave the Cowboys new life with a first down at midfield. They would not face a third down beyond 3rd and 1 after that.
After using mostly Murray runs to advance to the Packers’ 17, Romo threw out of the back of the end zone on 2nd and 8, which should have brought up 3rd and 8. However, Tramon Williams and Terrance Williams tangled feet at the goal line and Terrance fell down. Even though incidental contact like this is not a foul, Tramon had his right hand resting on Terrance immediately before he fell and the refs apparently thought that caused the fall. A pass interference call on Tramon made it 1st and goal from the 1. The Cowboys ran the pass to the fullback in the flat play after that and it was an easy touchdown.
8:20, 2nd Quarter – The Cowboys scored a touchdown on their second consecutive drive and took the lead at 14-7.
The Packers answered the Cowboys’ initial score with a drive that reached the Dallas 27. That drive consisted mostly of runs by James Starks and passes to Cobb. However, on 3rd and 7 from the 27, Rodgers was trying to adjust the routes of the receivers when Corey Linsley responded to a clap by Rodgers by snapping the ball. The receivers had been listening to Rodgers and were all caught offguard and unsure what to do, which resulted in most of them just running straight up the field. Rodgers should have immediately thrown the ball away and let Mason Crosby come in to kick a 45-yard field goal. Unfortunately, Rodgers picked up the loose ball, held onto it, and then was sacked by Jeremy Mincey, who stripped the ball from Rodgers and recovered it.
Throughout his career, Aaron Rodgers has been one of the best at not fumbling when he is sacked. For whatever reason, that has not been the case in the last couple months.
Starting at their 36-yard line, the Cowboys used runs by Murray and an 11-yard out to Cole Beasley to advance to the Packers’ 38. On 2nd and 7 from there, the Packers blitzed six. Romo threw the quick curl route to Terrance Williams, who broke the tackle of Tramon Williams and then went for a touchdown up the middle of the field when Micah Hyde overran the play and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix was slow to react to Williams’ inside move.
Tramon Williams knew the Packers were blitzing and had the perfect opportunity to jump the short route. He was mainly beaten by the fact that he lined up 10 yards off Williams, which was too much ground to make up when the ball came out quickly. To compound his mistake, Tramon overplayed Williams to the outside, just like everyone else, and missed the tackle.
00:03, 2nd Quarter – In what would be one of the most important momentum swings of the game, the Cowboys missed a field goal while the Packers made a field goal right before half, making the halftime score 14-10.
After the Cowboys’ score, the Packers picked up one first down before having to punt for the first time in the game. On 3rd and 8 from the Packers’ 35, Rodgers tried Nelson on the seam route, but Nelson was slow to adjust to the pass and it ended up going partially off his head. Punt.
The Cowboys were on the move again after Romo picked up a 3rd and 7 by finding Jason Witten over the middle of the field wide open for 18 yards. Morgan Burnett appeared to be handing off coverage to Clinton-Dix on the play, except there was a huge gap between them, and Romo and Witten found it.
Facing 3rd and 1 from the Packers’ 27, Romo had the snap go off his hands, and when picking up the bouncing ball led him directly into the path of a hard-charging Mike Neal, Romo threw the ball away/in the general direction of Terrance Williams. Williams and Williams were hand-checking each other near the pylon. Tramon had the better chance for the ball, but it appeared to go right through his hands. That would be for the best after kicker Dan Bailey pushed a 45-yarder right, got a reprieve from a false start call, only to then have his 50-yard attempt deflected further right by the hand of Datone Jones.
With only 29 seconds to use, the Packers got into field goal position themselves when Rodgers threw a perfect corner route to Cobb for 31 yards. After a dump to Adams got 5 more, Crosby came in and made the 40-yarder to end the half.
7:46, 3rd Quarter – Crosby kicked his second field goal of the game to make the score 14-13.
The Packers started the second half with the ball. They picked up one first down thanks to runs by Eddie Lacy. Facing 3rd and 6 near midfield, the Cowboys blitzed and Rodgers threw a 50-50 ball for Cobb, but he threw it too far to the outside. Incomplete. Punt.
Even though the Packers then punted from midfield, Dwayne Harris was able to field the ball at the 17 and return it to the 20 before being tripped up because that is how much Tim Masthay stinks right now.
The Cowboys advanced to their 41 thanks to a pass interference penalty on Tramon Williams, where Romo threw the ball with his eyes closed, which was good for 16 yards, and a 5-yard offsides penalty on Clay Matthews. On 1st and 10 from there, the Cowboys caught the Packers with nine in the box, only Clinton-Dix deep and him shading towards Bryant — a formation the Packers played a lot, and the Cowboys nearly struck it big by running to the other side of the field with Murray. Murray momentarily had a clear lane towards the end zone, but Julius Peppers got off his block enough to knock the ball out of Murray’s hands as he ran by. Datone Jones was in pursuit and jumped on the ball.
Two plays later, Eddie Lacy broke through to the left by cutting off a great Kuhn block on Bruce Carter. Lacy accelerated up the left sideline, gaining 29 yards to the Dallas 16. A short pass to Adams appeared to give the Packers 3rd and 1 from the 7-yard line, until a fight broke out immediately following the play. The fight was triggered by a T.J. Lang hit, delivered while Adams was still trying to fight for yardage about a half-second after the whistle blew. After discussing the melee for nearly five minutes, the refs decided to flag Lang, apparently just because it was his hit that started it.
That turned a 3rd and 1 into a 3rd and 16, which led to the Crosby field goal.
The Packers were hosed on this call, and there actually should have been no flags thrown for the melee at all. No punches were thrown and no facemasks yanked. Lang’s hit was not late enough to warrant a flag. The head ref, who was nearest the hit, never threw a flag. The only flag thrown was by the side judge who ran across the field and threw his flag only after the melee progressed. The refs seemed to conclude that SOMEONE had to be flagged for the brouhaha, and Lang was the easy patsy since his hit ticked off the Cowboys.
4:12, 3rd Quarter – The Cowboys went ahead by eight at 21 – 13 after a quick 80-yard drive.
Starting from the Dallas 20, Romo found Dez Bryant on a deep square in for 20 yards. After a Joseph Randle scamper around the left end moved the ball into Packers’ territory, Micah Hyde got free to Romo on a blitz. Romo threw the ball in the direction of Bryant as he was being taken down. Bryant tipped the ball up in the air, and it could have been another Romo disaster, except the tip went straight to Witten, who brought it in for 15 yards.
Whether he’s throwing with his eyes closed or not even to the guy who ends up catching the ball, Romo is coming up aces every time. What a guy!
On the next play, Murray tried the right side again. Even though the Packers have their entire defense except Clinton-Dix near the line of scrimmage, Sean Richardson lost contain, and Murray got to the outside and down the sideline. Clinton-Dix forced him out inside the 5. The refs marked the ball inside the 1, which is amazing since Murray landed at the 1 OUT OF BOUNDS. The replay actually shows Murray was probably out around the 3, but these refs aren’t selling anyone short today.
Murray went over the left side from the jumbo set and scored on the next play.
1:40, 3rd Quarter – With the season on the brink, Aaron Rodgers had his best drive of the game so far, leading the Packers to a quick 90-yard drive for a touchdown, bringing the score to 21-20.
First off, Randall Cobb took the kickoff and tried to put the Packers on ice by fumbling the football. Fortunately for him and the rest of us, Andrew Quarless made undoubtably his play of the year by coming out of a huge scrum with the football.
On 3rd and 3 shortly after, Rodgers found Adams on a curl. As he would for the remainder of the game, Adams broke a tackle and got up the sideline for 16 yards. On the next play, Rodgers threw a bullet between defenders that Cobb took in and gained 26 yards on. When two strange incompletions and a Quarless false start brought up 3rd and 15 from the Dallas 46, Rodgers stayed patient in the pocket before firing a strike over the middle to Adams running a square in out of the slot. Adams burned Sterling Moore on the play, and when Moore tried to bat the pass down and missed, Adams separated from him, put an inside move on the safety and took it to the pylon for a 46-yard touchdown.
With their next drive, the Cowboys picked up one first down with another pass over the middle of the field to Witten, which got them near midfield, but they would go backwards from there.
On 1st and 10, Mike Daniels bulled his way into Romo’s face, and Nick Perry used an outside move to beat Pro Bowler Tyron Smith and sacked Romo when he tried to spin away from Daniels. On second down, Romo looked confused by the Packers actually playing zone underneath, held the football, and was eventually sacked by the Daniels and Perry combo once again.
On third down, Romo checked down to Murray and the Cowboys ended up punting.
9:10, 4th Quarter – Rodgers remained hot, as the Packers went 80 yards in eight plays to take a 26-21 lead.
The Packers lined up with Cobb in the backfield on every play of this drive. Cobb got one draw play for 2 yards. Otherwise, every play on this drive was a Rodgers’ completion. On the first play of the drive, Rodgers stepped away from a defender that was grabbing for him and dumped to Quarless, who ran hard up the right side and gained 13 yards.
Two plays later, Adams turned a short curl route into an 18-yard gain when he once again broke away from a high tackle attempt and took the ball upfield. A couple plays later, Cobb caught a quick screen to the right and worked off good blocks by Quarless and Jordy Nelson to get 14 more yards. After two passes to Quarless moved the ball to the Dallas 13, on 1st and 10, Rodgers stepped out of the pocket to his left, finding no one over there. The easy pass was Quarless doing an out at the pylon and he was open. However, Rodgers instead goes Brett Favre and fired a missile between two Cowboys and into the chest of Richard Rodgers. Touchdown!
That would give the Packers their first lead since it was 7-0 in the first quarter.
The Packers went for an important two-point conversion that would have put them up by seven, but the back-shoulder attempt to Quarless was knocked down after he failed to drive the defender far enough into the end zone. Personally, I don’t know why the Packers don’t either have a jump ball to Quarless there or simply have Quarless turn around and Rodgers fire it into his gut.
The Cowboys started their last drive of the season on their own 18-yard line. On the first play, they ran the same play that Murray fumbled on and a 10-yard run turned into a 30-yard run when Clinton-Dix took a bad angle and let Murray get the sideline. After a square in to Bryant picked up 10 yards, the Cowboys slowed down. On 2nd and 8, Romo escaped the pocket to his right, held the ball and was eventually sacked by Mike Neal and Datone Jones. That brought up 3rd and 11.
The Packers played zone, which seemed to give Romo more trouble and this time covered up Jason Witten. Romo dumped it down to Beasley, who was then tackled short of the first down on a nice play by Brad Jones. That brought up 4th and a long 2 from the Packers’ 32.
There is no question that virtually every coach in the league would have gone for this. It would have been a 50-yard field goal that still would have left the Cowboys trailing on the scoreboard. Since the Packers blitzed six on the play, it is likely that Romo would have changed to the jump ball even if a run had been called.
This was one of the rare times that the Cowboys had Bryant one on one with Sam Shields and they took their shot. Romo is good at throwing the jump ball and that is essentially what his slightly underthrown pass up the sideline became. The jump ball situation against tall and physical receivers is not Sam Shields’ strong suit. He actually did well to get enough of the football to make Bryant bobble it, but Bryant brought the ball in and lunged for the goal line. The play was called a catch with the spot marked just short of the goal line.
However, replays immediately after the play showed that not only had the ball hit the ground when Bryant stretched for the end zone, but that he had momentarily lost the ball after doing so. This prompted a challenge by Mike McCarthy on whether the process had ever been completed before the ball hit the ground.
As soon as I saw the replay, I knew that if the NFL stayed consistent with what they’ve been calling for the past five seasons, ever since Calvin Johnson erroneously set the ball on the ground after seemingly beating the Chicago Bears, then the catch would be overturned. Bryant was clearly going to the ground while still in the process of making the catch, and as such, he had to stop the ball from hitting the ground or maintain control of it if it did so. Since the ball actually popped completely out of Bryants’ hands when he rolled over, there is no question he lost control of the ball after it hit the ground.
My only concern was, considering the magnitude of the moment, whether the NFL would actually remain consistent with their call. They did and the catch ruling was reversed.
The irony of this play is delicious. First of all, what sweet revenge for the Lions? To have the very call that ripped a season-opening win from them now come back to haunt the team that knocked them from the playoffs partially thanks to a couple huge decisions by the referees. Secondly, I don’t think anyone has spent more time complaining about this rule since its inception than I have, frequently reminding everyone of the great lengths a receiver in today’s NFL must go in order to “complete” a catch. I would have to admit now that my opinion of this rule is somewhat improved.
Anyway, I am not going to belabor a play that has been over-scrutinized already. Even if the Cowboys score there, they still would have had to stop the Packer offense and I firmly believe that at this point in the game, they were incapable of it.
The Packers took over at their own 32 with 4:06 left in the game. After two Lacy runs gave the Packers 3rd and 3, Rodgers threw a back-shoulder pass to Adams. Yes, the same play that hasn’t worked all year. This time, instead of over-running it, Adams stopped short, which made the play look like a 50-50 ball. Fortunately, Sterling Moore never turned around. Adams reached right in front of him and caught the ball and then, when Moore wrestled Adams for the ball, Adams used his right hand to secure the ball and used his left hand to discard Moore like a bitch. Adams then took off up the sideline for 26 yards, into Dallas territory.
At that point, the Packers were going to be able to run the clock down to at least 1:15 by merely running the football. However, any chance of running for a first down was pretty much erased when Quarless false started on first down, which could have potentially been a big mistake. After two Lacy runs, it was 3rd and 11 from the Dallas 35. The probability play here is to run the football and then punt. Wrong. McCarthy wants Rodgers to take a shot at winning the game.
It nearly backfired in disastrous fashion when a defender worked his way through the line and partially deflected Rodgers’ pass. Amazingly, near the same spot where Witten caught a tipped pass that wasn’t meant for him earlier in the half, Randall Cobb was running an out around Orlando Scandrick from the slot. Scandrick held Cobb badly on this play, by the way. Get used to that for Seattle. Cobb saw the ball in the air when Scandrick never did and got enough around him to make a diving catch.
It was a 12-yard gain and a first down, and game over.
As I talked about in my prediction, this was a HUGE game for the current Packers’ regime and all involved. Losing another home playoff game would have been beyond devastating and losing to probably your most hated rival outside the division would have made it even worse.
Besides the fact that it was at home, going one-and-done in the playoffs again would have suggested the Packers were in stagnation as a team. As we’ve seen with other organizations and their leadership, stagnation is unacceptable, even if you are making playoffs.
Instead, the Packers are going to the NFC Championship game for the third time during McCarthy’s tenure, which is the same number of times that Mike Holmgren’s Packers reached this game.
There were three main deciding factors in this game. First was the Cowboys’ decision to shorten the game by going slow-tempo on offense with perhaps an overcommitment to the run. Yes, controlling the game with Murray was sound strategic thinking, but the strength of Dallas down the stretch had been their passing game. Tony Romo himself, when talking about their success on the road, had pointed to their aggressiveness on the road as being a key. Well, the Cowboys were the complete opposite here. Ironically, in the end, the Cowboys managed to limit themselves more than the Packers. The Cowboys finished with eight offensive possessions — four per half. The Packers finished with nine offensive possessions, including five in the crucial second half.
The second deciding factor was Aaron Rodgers. The Cowboys blitzed more in the first half and that clearly helped slow the Packers down. It also appeared that Rodgers needed a period of adjustment. However, in the second half, Rodgers and the Packers offense kicked into gear. After starting the second half with a punt, of course, they went field goal, TD, TD, drive to the Dallas 23 to run out the clock. I don’t think Rodgers’ mobility in the second half had anything to do with it. What made the difference was Rodgers having the confidence to throw the ball into tight spaces and allow his arm to beat the coverage. It also helped that Rodgers found a connection with Davante Adams in the second half. It is almost bizarre how a secondary can contain Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb and have such a terrible time tackling Davante Adams. Regardless, it was a beautiful thing to watch.
The last main deciding factor was that the Packers flat beat the Cowboys in the second half, sort of like what the Cowboys did to the Lions the week before. The Cowboys fumbled the ball in the second half, took three sacks, blew a chance to take the late lead, and got weaker on defense as the game progressed. They had zero sacks in the second half and the Packers went 5 for 7 on third down in that half, including picking up a 3rd and 15 for a touchdown and a 3rd and 11 to seal the game. In fact, the Packers finished 9 for 13 on third downs. You aren’t going to win in the playoffs when your opponent does that.
So, I am done talking about the Dallas game. As Bill Belichick would say, we are on to Seattle.
CANT WAIT!