DALLAS — The season for the Dallas Cowboys came to an embarrassing close as they were outplayed, outcoached, and outclassed in a 48-32 Wild Card loss to the Green Bay Packers. The final score makes it appear closer than it actually was. Make no mistake, the 12-win Cowboys were clobbered in a contest no one saw coming but one that makes all the sense in the world.
A team that hadn’t lost all season when playing at home, had won 16 straight games at AT&T Stadium, won the NFC East, and earned the No. 2 seed got their doors blown off in a win or go home scenario. But it’s also the Dallas Cowboys and this is just what they do when the lights get bright.
With another embarrassing playoff loss, another Cowboys season concludes not with hope or triumph but with jarring question marks. What is the direction for a team that can’t win when it matters with their franchise quarterback and a coach that hasn’t been able to get Dallas over the hump?
The more things change, the more they stay the same for Jerry Jones’ Cowboys. Regular season success leads to hope, which has quickly been dashed in the playoffs for the last 28 years, and the 2023 season was no different.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way this year. Dak Prescott was playing the best he ever has, earning his first All-Pro nod and becoming a serious contender for the league’s MVP award. CeeDee Lamb, meanwhile, was playing like the top wide receiver in the league, and the defense played well at home with Pro Bowl performers throughout the lineup.
This was a team that had won 12 games for a third consecutive year and was hosting a young, unproven team with just nine wins on the year. Just a little over a month ago, this Packers team lost to the New York Giants, a team that Dallas beat twice this season by a combined 72 points.
The Packers had improved, winning their six of their final eight games, but everything we saw all season seemed to lead to the assumption that the Cowboys were the team positioned to dominate on Sunday.
Yet here we sit on Monday morning in the wreckage of another embarrassing Cowboys effort when their ascension to the conference’s upper echelon had been painstakingly laid out in front of them. In defeat, the Cowboys became the first team in the new playoff format to lose to the seventh seed. The loss also adds to the ghastly Conference Championship Game drought.
Despite the expectations, this game was ugly from the start. A fanbase and team that didn’t need more weight being added got punched in the mouth on the first series of the game. The Packers elected to take the ball after winning the coin toss and marched 75 yards in 12 plays to score a touchdown. The drive was aided by two silly Cowboys penalties, which has become a staple in recent postseason exits.
The Cowboys needed to get off to a good start, instead they were down quick and were challenged early. It was a bad sign for a team that has shown all year that they need to play from in front. Everything snowballed from there.
Dallas’ offense couldn’t get a drive going and play-calling head coach Mike McCarthy settled back into old tendencies by calling for fruitless run plays on second and long situations. On the second offensive possession, Prescott threw an interception that put more pressure on the team. The throw was intended for wide receiver Brandin Cooks, but he was bullied to the spot and the ball was picked off. The Packers took three plays to score their second touchdown of the game and the rout was on.
After Prescott threw a pick-six near the end of the first half, the Cowboys were down 27-0.
Everything that the Cowboys needed to do well in this game, they were miserable at. The defense couldn’t stop the run, allowing running back Aaron Jones to embarrass them, something he’s made a career out of. Sunday was Jones’ second three-touchdown game in Dallas as he ran for 118 yards and almost six yards per carry.
Dan Quinn’s defense had other troubles, too. Quarterback Jordan Love found receivers running wide open all game long. Second-year wide receiver Romeo Doubs collected 151 yards on just six receptions as the defense blew multiple assignments. The Packers schemed receivers open in the middle of the field and left Quinn’s unit confused.
Tight end Luke Musgrave scored on a 38-yard touchdown on a play that the Cowboys are still trying to figure out how to cover in what was the final slice of the humble pie.
The Cowboys losing playoff games has gotten to be an annual rite of January. What’s worse, the team continues to lose in embarrassing fashion.
It might be easier to swallow had the team not given their fans so much hope for the last five months. There were signs that this could be the year that the NFC Championship drought would come to an end.
There was the bonding trip to Georgia that Prescott took with some of the offensive players. There was the Carpe Omnia slogan from McCarthy. There were the All-Pro seasons from nine Cowboys. There was the conference-best +194 point differential with the team almost never even challenged at home. There was a collapse by the Philadelphia Eagles to give the Cowboys the home playoff game in a season where the NFC didn’t look as challenging as other years.
In the end, it was the same outcome. The Cowboys came out flat and played arguably their worst game of the season on a day that they couldn’t afford to do so.
Death, taxes, and the Dallas Cowboys getting bounced in the postseason before reaching their potential. It’s another in a long line of defeats that leaves their fans scratching their heads and looking for what went wrong.
Where the team goes from here is anyone’s guess, but three straight embarrassing playoff defeats with an owner who seemingly doesn’t have much longer to wait for a championship doesn’t feel like it will sit well. As Jones intimated, it’s a question for another day.
The story today is how the Cowboys embarrassed themselves in a postseason game, again. And the rest of the football world was all too happy to watch it happen.
Is there a record for how many times you can use embarrassed in one article?
Do you think the Cowboys need changes after their latest embarrassment? Share your thoughts with Ben on Twitter @BenGrimaldi.