A complete and utter dismantling.
That’s the best way to describe the Green Bay Packers 45-7 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
The Packers were dominant both offensively and defensively, more so than they’ve been all season, and have to feel pretty good about themselves heading into their bye week.
The game never really seemed to be in doubt, but the Packers 28-point second quarter ended any question.
Offensively, the Packers moved the ball at will, controlled the clock and Dallas’ supposedly stout pass rush never really posed a threat to quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers, who was sacked once, threw for 289 yards and three touchdowns, completing 27 of 34 passes. Filling in for the injured Donald Driver, James Jones had his biggest game of the season, catching eight balls for 123 yards and touchdown. Greg Jennings was almost as impressive with seven receptions for 80 yards and a touchdown.
The Packers rushed for 138 yards, led by John Kuhn’s 50. Brandon Jackson had 68 total yards and two touchdowns.
The Packers defense was even more dominant than a week ago, when they shut out the New York Jets. They sacked Cowboys quarterback John Kitna four times, intercepted him twice and forced two fumbles.
Clay Matthews was his usual dominant self, finishing with four tackles, a sack and an interception, which he returned 62 yards for a touchdown. Matthews also had one of the game’s best plays, stuffing Dallas running back Marion Barber on an early third-and-1. The defensive player of the year campaign is now in full effect.
Charles Woodson had one of his better games of the season, with five tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. Like Matthews, Woodson pressured Kitna for much of the night, coming on an array of blitzes that kept the Dallas offense completely out of sync.
Tramon Williams continued to be the Packers lockdown corner and the much-maligned Jarrett Bush even had a solid performance. Bush had two tackles, but also stripped the ball from Dallas kickoff returner Bryan McCann shortly before halftime and Nick Collins returned it for a touchdown.
Collins had perhaps the one lowlight of the evening, when he delivered a helmet-to-helmet hit to the back of receiver Roy Williams’ head in the third quarter. Collins will be getting a fine from the league this week.
Overall, the Packers defense was more than impressive, though. Kitna finished with only 183 yards and the Cowboys three-headed running back of Barber, Felix Jones and Tashard Choice combined for only 39 yards rushing.
The biggest negative for the Packers is defensive end Ryan Pickett again aggravated his ankle injury. However, he’ll have two weeks to recover, as the Packers enter their bye week in otherwise great shape at 6-3.
If anyone wants to nitpick, the Cowboys are now 1-7 and they clearly won’t be challenging anyone for anything, except the rights to the No. 1 draft choice in next year’s draft.
That being said, the Packers did exactly what they were supposed to do and beat the hell out of Dallas with a nearly flawless effort.
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