Plankton
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Lambeau Field has been a veritable house of horrors for the Dallas Cowboys in their history.
Only one time in their history, 2008, the Cowboys went into Green Bay and defeated the Packers. The defeats to the Packers have ranged from the painful (Ice Bowl in 1967), to the embarrassing (the swan song of Wade Phillips in 2010) to the anger inducing (Divisional Playoffs in 2014). With a rookie quarterback entering a stadium that had been downright cruel to the Cowboys, it set up to be a litmus test for how far, how fast this team had come.
Consider that test one that was aced.
Dak Prescott continued to show that he is wise and poised beyond his years, and he continued his simply stunning stretch of steady play. While he committed two turnovers, including his first interception of his career, Prescott kept the waters calm, and rose to the occasion. When a play needed to be made, he made it.
The Cowboys received the ball first, and Prescott showed his poise in an environment that has made veteran quarterbacks wilt. The Cowboys didn’t even see a third down on this drive, as Prescott calmly led them to a touchdown on a nice flip to Cole Beasley.
It was a lead that the Cowboys would not relinquish.
After the game had stabilized in a 10-6 physical fight, Prescott and emerging star Ezekiel Elliott led the Cowboys on the drive that gave them a stranglehold on the game, and made the Packers and Aaron Rodgers do what the rookie QB was supposed to do – press.
The Cowboys took the ball 97 yards in a ridiculous 33 seconds – with big plays made by Lucky Whitehead and Terrance Williams – culminated by a pretty 20-yard touchdown pass to Brice Butler. This touchdown was a stamp on a ridiculously good first half of football by the Cowboys.
It carried over to the second half as well.
The Cowboys bent defensively, but never broke. They swarmed to the ball, and exacted a physical toll on the Packer offense. Reminiscent of 2014, they were opportunistic, causing four turnovers, and not allowing a Packer touchdown until there was less than seven minutes remaining in the game.
And, with the Packers closing the Cowboy lead to 11 points, the rookies reminded all of us that this stage is not too big for them.
Prescott completed a key 3rd and 5 pass to Jason Witten to extend the drive. Elliott then broke the Packers’ backs with a cutting, winding 29-yard run, the signature play in a 28 carry, 157-yard performance against what had been the league’s top run defense coming into the game. This drive led to a field goal that put the game away.
Coming into the season, there was a lot of unknown and a lot of uncertainty. Based off of how the team performed a season ago when Tony Romo went down with a broken collarbone, it didn’t shape up to be a promising beginning to the year.
With Romo looking to be out until the midpoint of the season, the hope amongst the masses was that the Cowboys could eke out a 3-3 or 4-2 record.
Who saw 5-1 coming?
The team looks inspired on both sides of the ball, the offense looks to be diverse and strong, and the bye week comes at a good time to get some of the injured players healthy (Dez Bryant, Orlando Scandrick and Morris Claiborne should all be back for the Eagles). The season has been so good that a decision at QB actually has to be entertained. Should the Cowboys bring back the man who was viewed as the unquestioned leader of the team, or should they stick with the man who has inspired the offense to play solid, efficient and relatively mistake free football?
That’s a decision for another day, but today’s win over the Packers was historic in a lot of ways:
Other notes on today’s game:
Only one time in their history, 2008, the Cowboys went into Green Bay and defeated the Packers. The defeats to the Packers have ranged from the painful (Ice Bowl in 1967), to the embarrassing (the swan song of Wade Phillips in 2010) to the anger inducing (Divisional Playoffs in 2014). With a rookie quarterback entering a stadium that had been downright cruel to the Cowboys, it set up to be a litmus test for how far, how fast this team had come.
Consider that test one that was aced.
Dak Prescott continued to show that he is wise and poised beyond his years, and he continued his simply stunning stretch of steady play. While he committed two turnovers, including his first interception of his career, Prescott kept the waters calm, and rose to the occasion. When a play needed to be made, he made it.
The Cowboys received the ball first, and Prescott showed his poise in an environment that has made veteran quarterbacks wilt. The Cowboys didn’t even see a third down on this drive, as Prescott calmly led them to a touchdown on a nice flip to Cole Beasley.
It was a lead that the Cowboys would not relinquish.
After the game had stabilized in a 10-6 physical fight, Prescott and emerging star Ezekiel Elliott led the Cowboys on the drive that gave them a stranglehold on the game, and made the Packers and Aaron Rodgers do what the rookie QB was supposed to do – press.
The Cowboys took the ball 97 yards in a ridiculous 33 seconds – with big plays made by Lucky Whitehead and Terrance Williams – culminated by a pretty 20-yard touchdown pass to Brice Butler. This touchdown was a stamp on a ridiculously good first half of football by the Cowboys.
It carried over to the second half as well.
The Cowboys bent defensively, but never broke. They swarmed to the ball, and exacted a physical toll on the Packer offense. Reminiscent of 2014, they were opportunistic, causing four turnovers, and not allowing a Packer touchdown until there was less than seven minutes remaining in the game.
And, with the Packers closing the Cowboy lead to 11 points, the rookies reminded all of us that this stage is not too big for them.
Prescott completed a key 3rd and 5 pass to Jason Witten to extend the drive. Elliott then broke the Packers’ backs with a cutting, winding 29-yard run, the signature play in a 28 carry, 157-yard performance against what had been the league’s top run defense coming into the game. This drive led to a field goal that put the game away.
Coming into the season, there was a lot of unknown and a lot of uncertainty. Based off of how the team performed a season ago when Tony Romo went down with a broken collarbone, it didn’t shape up to be a promising beginning to the year.
With Romo looking to be out until the midpoint of the season, the hope amongst the masses was that the Cowboys could eke out a 3-3 or 4-2 record.
Who saw 5-1 coming?
The team looks inspired on both sides of the ball, the offense looks to be diverse and strong, and the bye week comes at a good time to get some of the injured players healthy (Dez Bryant, Orlando Scandrick and Morris Claiborne should all be back for the Eagles). The season has been so good that a decision at QB actually has to be entertained. Should the Cowboys bring back the man who was viewed as the unquestioned leader of the team, or should they stick with the man who has inspired the offense to play solid, efficient and relatively mistake free football?
That’s a decision for another day, but today’s win over the Packers was historic in a lot of ways:
- Brett Favre was added to the Packers Hall of Fame, and received his Hall of Fame ring.
- Dak Prescott set an NFL record for the most consecutive pass attempts to begin a career without an interception.
- Ezekiel Elliott became the first rookie running back in NFL history to rush for 130 yards or more in four consecutive games.
- And, most importantly, the Cowboys won for only the second time in their history at Lambeau Field.
Other notes on today’s game:
- Geoff Swaim is developing into an outstanding blocker as a tight end. He had a terrific game today.
- The offensive line just looks nastier and more intimidating with Ron Leary in the lineup. Leary had a great game against Mike Daniels and Mike Pennel.
- The Packers ran a bunch of Bear fronts in this game, lining up in the 46 (covering the center and both guards) throughout the first half. It didn’t have a great impact against the run game.
- I normally do not talk about play calling, because, typically, the view is that a good play call is one that works, and a bad play call is one that doesn’t. That being said, Scott Linehan had a great day today. The play calls on two plays involving Lucky Whitehead (the jet sweep on the 97-yard TD drive, and the 35-yard pass reception on 3rd and 1 in the 4th quarter) were perfect calls for the situations.
- The pass rush was lagging in many ways today, but they moved Aaron Rodgers off his spot today enough to make him uncomfortable. David Irving stepped up in a big way today, and Terrell McClain continued his strong play inside.
- Rodgers has appeared to be off with his play for a good length of time now. Where the issue seems to be is a complete lack of explosiveness outside with his weapons. His receivers struggle to get separation. The Cowboy defense did a good job of making him hold the ball today, but this has been a problem for the Packers for the better part of a year.
- Sean Lee was a hitting machine today. He took two players out of the game today, including friendly fire on Morris Claiborne.
- Brice Butler continues to be a tease. He makes a terrific play on his touchdown catch of keeping his feet in and making a solid hands catch, but then makes a bonehead play in blocking Ladarius Gunter from behind on a long catch and run by Cole Beasley. He capped his uneven day by dropping a perfectly thrown deep pass by Dak Prescott, on the play that preceded his first career interception. Butler seems to be the guy who does just enough to let you down.
- I don’t envy the decision that Jason Garrett has to make. It will be very difficult to put Prescott on the bench following his fantastic stretch of play. He is very close to Romo personally, and that makes the decision even harder. I believe that when it’s all said and done, Prescott will keep the job out of the bye week.
- What makes Ezekiel Elliott a special player is that he excels at all facets of the game, and you saw this play out today. He always seems to fall forward on runs, and continues to drive his legs through contact. He continues to block well on blitz pickups. He shows the speed to take the corner. He also ran with power today better than he has all season. His 12 yard run in the fourth quarter where he hurdled a Packer defender, and then ran through Blake Martinez was an impressive effort.
- This is looking a lot like 2014 all over again. A spotty effort in a Week One loss, followed by five consecutive wins, highlighted by a win on the road against a team that has caused them problems and play in a stadium that is as difficult a place to win in as there is in the league.
- The Cowboys are a team that seems to play much better when there is little expected of them. With expectations soon to rise, let’s hope that they can maintain the edge that they have played with over the last five weeks.
