Good morning, everyone. On Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers will take on the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field. Before the season, I knew that this game was going to be a big matchup. Former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy will be heading back to Lambeau Field ever since he was fired back in 2018. I’m sure both he and Aaron Rodgers will have a long embrace both before and after the game. During the game, however, the Packers will be determined to play well against their former coach no matter how banged up the team is. I’m serious when I say that more than 15 players are on the injury report for the Packers. What I wasn’t expecting before this game was the Packers struggling at 3-6 and losers of 5 straight games. It may be a slim chance of making the playoffs, but I hope that they play well on Sunday. I’m here to give you my thoughts on what Green Bay needs to do to have a chance of winning against Dallas.
On offense, Aaron Jones needs to be the focus for Green Bay. Yes, he had an ankle issue at the end of the Detroit game, but he should be able to play on Sunday. In both the running and the passing game, Aaron Jones needs to get plenty of touches. I have no doubt that he will catch a few passes from Aaron Rodgers in addition to his rushing attempts. Rodgers needs to do his part in throwing the ball accurately to Aaron Jones, plus any other healthy receiving option. Rodgers also needs to focus on finding an open man to throw to, which he has had issues with in the past, including last week against the Lions. The receivers need to run their routes and win their one-on-ones against the defense. In order for everything to work on offense, the offensive linemen (including David Bakhtiari, Elgton Jenkins, Josh Myers, Jon Runyan, Jr., and Yosh Nijman) need to do their part in creating the holes in the running game and protecting Aaron Rodgers from the pass rush of the Cowboys, which includes Defensive Player of the Year candidate Micah Parsons. Most importantly, the Packers need to convert third downs, have a balanced attack, and avoid turnovers. If they are able to do that, then they can sustain long drives that should result in touchdowns. In goal line situations, the offense can’t be allergic to running the ball from under center, or even a QB sneak. If the call is to throw the ball, then Rodgers needs to throw the ball accurately to the receiver and not let the ball hit a defender’s helmet. I know that the Cowboys defense is a tough one to score against, but I’m sure Rodgers, Matt LaFleur, and everyone with the offense is sick and tired of shooting themselves in the foot and exhausting the Packers defense as a result.
Speaking of the defense, they need to adjust quickly without a couple of their key pieces. The biggest absence for the rest of the season is Rashan Gary, who led the team with 6 sacks before tearing his ACL against Detroit (BTW, get rid of artificial turf, NFL). The defensive front and the linebackers need to step up without him. They have a tough challenge ahead of them in the form of the running back duo of Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard. If nothing else, the defenders need to finish the tackles and not let either of these running backs to get a whole bunch of yards on each play. In addition to them, Dak Prescott is able to scramble at times. Whoever is carrying the football needs to be tackled for minimum yardage. For any defender, the key is to not miss a tackle and give the Cowboys more yards on a play. All 11 men need to focus on getting after the ball carrier no matter what type of play it is. In the passing game, the defenders need to get after Dak Prescott and keep him from scrambling for extra yards. Pressuring Prescott may force him to throw errant passes that need to be intercepted by the likes of Jaire Alexander, Rasul Douglas, Adrian Amos, or anybody else on defense. If the pass rush is not able to pressure him, then the defensive backs can’t allow any receivers (especially Ceedee Lamb) to catch any pass easily. Joe Barry’s unit needs to play aggressively with man defense on everybody. Jaire Alexander needs to be with Lamb all day on Sunday to limit his impact. Any turnover opportunities need to be capitalized on defense, whether they are via a strip-sack of the quarterback or an interception. I’m hoping for a defensive touchdown by Green Bay on Sunday. Most importantly, the defense needs to limit the amount of long drives by Dallas by stopping them on third downs and getting a key turnover or two (or three). If the offense is able to not stall out, then the defense will have enough energy to play well for all 4 quarters.
On Special Teams, the Packers need to limit the mistakes to a minimum. Amari Rodgers needs to make good decisions with the football on punt returns, whether he is running with it or just fair catching the punts. Keisean Nixon needs to return the ball for a good amount of yardage on kickoffs that aren’t touchbacks. On both kickoff and punt returns, the blockers need to create the holes for the returners to run through without being called for holding or illegal block. On the other side, the Packers need to do their best to not allow any long returns by a Cowboys return man. Pat O’Donnell needs to punt long and deep into Dallas territory (hopefully out of bounds as well), plus secure the hold on field goal and PAT attempts. Mason Crosby, in addition to making every field goal, needs to make sure that most of his kickoffs are touchbacks. Jack Coco and the rest of the blockers need to protect any kick and punt from being blocked by Dallas. Like on offense, the Packers need to play complimentary football on Special Teams in terms of field position. The offense can’t be put in a position where Special Teams makes them start at the goal line. The unit also can’t put the defense at a disadvantage by giving the Cowboys a great field position to start their drive. Rich Bisaccia needs to make sure that the Special Teams unit plays great on Sunday. I’m sure that he will get frustrated when mistakes are made.
Overall, I’m looking forward to this game. A bonus for me is that I will be at Lambeau Field on Sunday for the first time in my life. I’m going to take it all in. I know that Mike McCarthy is the Cowboys coach, but I will pay my respects to him. After all, he was the coach that helped Aaron Rodgers become the player that he is and won a Super Bowl. He will be the only thing that I like about Dallas. I want the Packers to play hard and win against their former coach and not give Jerry Jones (the Cowboys owner since 1989) any satisfaction. I’ll make sure to pray that no more players get seriously injured on Sunday. I’ll be back on Monday or Tuesday for the recap of the game and a little bit after that for my experience of being at Lambeau (with plenty of pictures). Have a great weekend, everyone. Go Pack Go!
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