Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers took on the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field. This game was former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy’s return to Green Bay since he got fired in 2018. I had a feeling that the Packers were going to play hard and do their best to win against McCarthy and spoil his return to Lambeau. My mom and I were there to witness it on Sunday. I will do a full picture/trip recap in a future post. For now, I want to focus on what happened in the game. Without further delay, let’s get started.
The Packers defense started great by forcing the Cowboys to go three and out on their first drive. A one yard run by Tony Pollard was followed by two straight incomplete passes by Dak Prescott. The ensuing punt was fair caught by Amari Rodgers at the Green Bay 16. From there, the Packers offense started their first drive. I loved that they began the drive with handing the ball of to Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon, who were able to run for plenty of yards. What I didn’t love was that the drive stalled with two straight drops by Christian Watson. To make things worse, Mason Crosby missed his field goal to the right from 54 yards out, giving the Packers nothing for their effort. Thankfully, the defense forced Dallas to a second three and out. Once again, a run by Tony Pollard (this time for 4 yards) was followed by two straight incomplete passes. Darnell Savage covered the second down play well, forcing the incompletion. The punt bounced off Amari Rodgers’ hands, but he caught it and returned it for only 2 yards. From their own 17, the Packers started their second drive. Once again, they got into Dallas territory, but the drive stalled on a third down. This time, Aaron Jones was tackled for a loss of 3 yards by a combination of Micah Parsons and Carlos Watkins. After a delay of game penalty, the punt by Pat O’Donnell was caught at the Dallas 6 and returned 11 yards to the 17. From there, the Cowboys went on their first scoring drive. During this drive, Tony Pollard ran for 14 yards to convert a 2nd and 13 that was a result of an offensive holding penalty. A few plays after that, Dak Prescott was able to convert a third and 1 by himself. On the following play, Prescott connected with WR Ceedee Lamb for a gain of 21 yards to the Green Bay 40 (there was offsides called on Jarran Reed, but the penalty was declined). 4 plays later, Dak Prescott QB sneaked his way to a first down to convert a fourth and one. He then caught the defense with too many men on the field and tried a deep shot to Noah Brown, which was broken up by Darnell Savage. Another third and 1 was converted via a Prescott run shortly after the penalty. 4 plays later, Prescott connected with Lamb for a three yard touchdown to complete a 17 play drive that lasted more than 8 minutes. The extra point was good, giving Dallas a 7-0 lead with 9:52 left in the second quarter. Things were seemingly going from bad to worse when Aaron Rodgers was strip-sacked and the Cowboys recovered the fumble at the Green Bay 10. But then, Rudy Ford intercepted Dak Prescott in the end zone and returned the pick to the 33 yard line of Green Bay. 3 plays later, Aaron Rodgers connected with Christian Watson with a play-action deep pass that went for a 58-yard touchdown. In addition to the touchdown catch, he executed a back flip in the end zone. The extra point by Mason Crosby was good, tying the game at 7-7 with 4:54 left in the second quarter. Dallas tried to answer back, but Prescott was intercepted by Rudy Ford for a second time. Ford returned the pick to the Cowboys 24 yard line, and the Packers were able to score a touchdown after the pick again. Aaron Jones ran it in from 12 yards out, mostly untouched. Another Mason Crosby extra point increased the lead to 14-7 with 1:42 left. The Packers defense was not able to stop the Cowboys from tying the game before halftime. Dallas was able to get easy chunks of yards due to the defense playing mostly prevent zone stuff. With 8 seconds left, tight end Dalton Schultz caught a 5 yard touchdown pass that, with the extra point, tied the game at 14-14 at halftime.
The first drive in the third quarter started well for Green Bay. A highlight was converting a second and 22 (which happened due to a holding penalty on Yosh Nijman) with an Aaron Rodgers to Sammy Watkins connection that went for 23 yards. Rodgers made a throw that only Watkins could catch, which he did. Shortly after that, however, the drive stalled and the Packers were forced to punt to Dallas. The punt was fair caught at the 10, but an unnecessary roughness penalty backed Dallas up to the 5 yard line. The Packers defense was able to force the Cowboys to go three and out. However, the Cowboys got a gift after Amari Rodgers fumbled the ball again on the ensuing punt return. The ball was recovered by Dallas at the Green Bay 45. 4 plays later, Tony Pollard ran for a 13-yard touchdown, breaking some tackles along the way. After a Packers three and out, the Cowboys then went on another touchdown drive that covered 86 yards in 7 plays. The drive concluded with a 35-yard touchdown pass from Dak Prescott to Ceedee Lamb that gave Dallas a 28-14 lead with 2:47 left in the third quarter. The ensuing kickoff was returned to the 24 yard line of Green Bay by Keisean Nixon. From there, the Packers started their comeback. On third and 3 from the 31, Aaron Rodgers scrambled for the first down to keep the drive alive. 2 plays after that, he found Sammy Watkins for a 15-yard pass completion that converted a second and 5 and got the Packers into Dallas territory. 4 plays later, they faced a crucial 4th down from the Dallas 39 yard line. They went for it and scored on Christian Watson’s second touchdown catch of the day, which was followed by a Lambeau Leap. The extra point was good, decreasing the lead to 7 points with 13:23 left in the fourth quarter. The defense was able to force the Cowboys to punt on their next drive. Keisean Nixon was back to return the punt and didn’t fumble it as he ran to the Green Bay 11. From there, the Packers went on a drive that lasted nearly 6 and a half minutes of game time. During this drive, the Packers had no problem going down the field, even though Aaron Jones nearly lost a fumble during his big run that got Green Bay into scoring range. Thankfully, he was able to get the ball back. 3 plays after that big run, Christian Watson caught his third touchdown pass of the game from 7 yards away. With the extra point, the game was tied at 28-28 with 2:29 left in regulation. The Packers defense was able to force the Cowboys to go three and out, setting up a potential game-winning drive for Aaron Rodgers and the offense. Well, that did not happen as they went three and out while wasting a bit of time. After the punt by Pat O’Donnell, the Cowboys tried desperately to get into scoring range with only 16 seconds left. No points were scored and the game went into overtime.
The Cowboys won the OT coin toss and had the first chance to win the game. Their offense was able to get into Packers territory with a couple of key first downs. A holding penalty negated a 16 yard run that would have gotten Dallas into field goal range. On second and 19 from the Cowboys 49, Dak Prescott connected with Dalton Schultz for a 16-yard pass completion that set up a third and 3 from the Green Bay 35. On the third down, Jaire Alexander forced an incomplete pass intended for Ceedee Lamb. Rather than just kick the field goal, Dallas decided to go for it. Jarran Reed nearly sacked Prescott, but the play ended with a turnover on downs anyway. After 2 Aaron Jones runs, the Packers faced a third and 1 from their 44 yard line. Allen Lazard got open and caught a short pass, which he was able to take all the way to the Dallas 20 yard line. One play later, the Cowboys were called for a facemask penalty, and the offense paved the way for Mason Crosby to kick the game-winning field goal. The kick was good from 28 yards out, giving the Packers a 31-28 OT win over the Cowboys. With the win, the Packers finally snapped their losing streak and are now 4-6 on the season.
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page. Click on "Watch on YouTube.)
Offensively, the Packers played a much better game than in previous weeks. For one thing, there were only 20 passing attempts from Aaron Rodgers compared to 37 combined rushing attempts from Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon. Aaron Jones, in particular, ran 24 times for 138 yards and a touchdown in which he grabbed his private area and jumped in celebration. AJ Dillon ran 13 times for 65 yards, with both him and Jones averaging at least 5 yards per carry and combining for 203 yards on the ground. That productive running game helped Aaron Rodgers a lot on Sunday. Other than the strip sack and a couple of missed throws, Aaron Rodgers played great against the Cowboys defense. He completed 14 of his 20 passing attempts for 224 yards and three touchdowns, with all three TDs being caught by rookie WR Christian Watson. Watson had himself a day with 4 catches for 107 yards and those three touchdowns. I was happy to see Watson do that after having some bad injury luck the past two weeks. Sammy Watkins had 3 catches for 47 yards, including a catch that converted a second and 22. Allen Lazard 3 catches for 45, with the last catch and run setting up Mason Crosby’s game winning field goal in overtime. What helped everything work on offense was the performance of the offensive line. Yes, they had a couple of bad moments, but I thought that the linemen played well on Sunday. The two deep shot TDs wouldn’t have been possible without the protection that the O-Line gave Rodgers. This should be the plan from here on out: at least 30 combined rushing attempts for Jones and Dillon, and less than 25 passing attempts from Rodgers (with some deep shot plays added in). There were a couple of bad drives, including the last one in regulation, but the offense was able to complete the comeback in the second half and overtime.
That comeback wouldn’t have been possible without the play of the defense late in the game. I know that the Packers gave up over 150 rushing yards and allowed Ceedee Lamb to get 150 yards and two touchdowns by himself. I also know that Rashan Gary’s absence affected the pass rush a lot. But late in the game, when they were needed the most, the defense was able to get the stops and give the offense chances to come back and win the game. One player who surprised me was Rudy Ford, who picked off Dak Prescott twice. His picks helped set up both first half touchdowns for Green Bay. Jaire Alexander made a couple of key stops as well, including the one against Ceedee Lamb on the Cowboys’ OT drive. The defensive front with Jarran Reed and Kenny Clark got some pressure on Dak, with Clark getting one sack and Reed forcing Dak to throw that errant incomplete pass on fourth and 3 in OT. Isaiah McDuffie led the team in tackles with 12, while Jaire Alexander and Adrian Amos had 9 tackles each (Amos also added a sack on Sunday). Kingsley Enegbare has played good recently, and he added 5 tackles on Sunday. One thing that the defense still needs to improve on is to tackle the runners near the line of scrimmage and not allow the backs to break tackles easily. Tony Pollard’s TD run in the second half was a result of a couple of broken/missed tackles. They will be facing tough running teams, including Tennessee on Thursday night. Hopefully they will respond to the challenges ahead.
On Special Teams, the Packers had enough of one man. That man is Amari Rodgers, who has been given too many chances at punt returner, even though he has fumbled and muffed punts numerous times. After the fumble in the second half, the Packers had enough of him (he is now released from the team) and replaced him with Keisean Nixon, who did ok with his returns and didn’t fumble the ball. Instead of Mason Crosby, Ramiz Ahmed did the kickoffs for Green Bay. Most of them were returned, with the first one giving Dallas a good starting field position at their 39. Pat O’Donnell punted well on Sunday, pinning the Cowboys inside their 20 on three of his punts. Mason Crosby was forgiven after missing his first kick after he made all 4 extra point kicks and the game winner in OT. Once again, there were no blocked field goals or punts. I hope that Rich Bisaccia’s unit plays better in terms of not having any fumbles.
Overall, it was great seeing the Packers win for the first time in over a month. To have my first game at Lambeau Field result in an OT win was incredible. Don’t worry, I’ll talk about my trip in the future. In the meantime, the focus is on the Packers’ next opponent: the Tennessee Titans. That game will be on Thursday night, which means that I will go over the keys to it tomorrow. For now, I hope you have a wonderful week. Go Pack Go!
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