A Winning Hand: Green Bay Upsets Dallas in Emotional Win

The Green Bay Packers’ last Super Bowl triumph came at AT&T Stadium (formerly Cowboys Stadium) at Super Bowl XLV in February 2011.

On Sunday, it felt like a Super Bowl victory for the green and gold as they defeated former head coach Mike McCarthy and the Dallas Cowboys 31-28 in a come-from-behind overtime win.

The Packers didn’t have a great hand at first, but played their cards right in the second half when it mattered.

After trailing 28-14 late in the 3rd quarter, the Packers scored 2 touchdowns on back-to-back drives and the defense held the Cowboys to only 47 yards of offense in the 4th quarter to force the game into overtime.

Dallas won the coin toss and got the ball first, but after failing on a 4th and 3 on the Green Bay 35 instead of kicking a 52-yard field goal into the wind, the Packers gladly took the ball and ran with it.

A 36-yard catch and run by Allen Lazard and an Aaron Jones carry that drew a facemask penalty brought them to the Dallas 10-yard line. Mason Crosby would then kick a 28-yard field goal to seal the deal and end the Packers’ 5 game losing streak.

This looked like the first time all season that the Packers had played complimentary football. Safety Rudy Ford intercepted Dak Prescott twice in the second quarter and the offense capitalized off both turnovers with a pair of touchdowns. After the Cowboys took a two-score lead, the offense and defense boosted each other's confidence with a touchdown and then forcing Dallas to punt for each consecutive series.

Christian Watson played the best game of his career so far. The rookie hauled in 4 receptions for 107 yards and 3 touchdowns with an average of 26.8 yards per catch. After dropping his first two targets, Watson answered with a 58-yard catch for his first score of the game- which was the longest completion by Aaron Rodgers this season.

Lazard and Sammy Watkins played supporting roles, with each receiver making 3 receptions for 45 and 47 yards, respectively.

While Rodgers was able to air the ball out, 63% of total plays for the Packers offense were run on the ground- which proved to be effective against the league’s 24th ranked rushing defense. Aaron Jones had 24 carries for 138 yards and ran for a score before the end of the first half.

Although they would give up 28 points, the defense made several key adjustments after losing Rashan Gary and Eric Stokes to season-ending injuries last week. Isaiah McDuffie led the team with 13 tackles, 8 of them solo as he played in place of the injured De’Vondre Campbell. Rasul Douglas moved back outside and Darnell Savage moved into the slot corner position, which allowed Ford to play more freely at safety and it paid off.

There were some mistakes that still caused flare ups for Green Bay. Amari Rodgers fumbled on a punt return in the second half that led to a Cowboys touchdown. It was the 4th fumble this season, and the 7th in his career for the 2021 3rd-round pick. Keisean Nixon would take over return duties, and it may be another huge part of Nixon’s role on special teams going forward.

Game management by Matt LaFleur with under 2 minutes left in regulation was the most notable reason for the game going into overtime. After getting the ball back at their own 33-yard line, the offense ran the ball twice with Jones before throwing an incompletion on 3rd and 1 with 30 seconds remaining.

Despite having 2 timeouts remaining, Green Bay let 43 seconds run off before stopping the clock. Rodgers showed verbal frustration towards LaFleur about the play-calling, but ultimately made the game winning drive in overtime instead.

The team was in high spirits after the win, but they could only celebrate for a moment as they have a short turnaround for their game against the Tennessee Titans on Thursday night. The Titans have 29 sacks this season and has the league's top rushing defense, so it will be another test for the offense on handling pressure from the defensive front.