Turns out, in the end, getting the home field advantage for the first round or beyond by winning the NFC East Division didn’t matter for the Dallas Cowboys.
And now, their season is over.
The Cowboys, seeded second in the NFC with only the San Francisco 49ers in front of them, were home at AT&T Stadium in Arlington against the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers on Sunday, and laid an egg. Green Bay punched Dallas in the mouth early, turned turnovers into points, got a huge day from running back Aaron Jones – and then eliminated the Cowboys, 48-32.
And it felt a lot worse than that.
“Just shocked, honestly,” Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott said after the game. “From the beginning of the game, we got beat. There’s no which way around it. There’s no way to sugar coat it. Shock.”
Jones ran for 118 yards and scored three times, and Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love was very good in his first playoff start, going 16-of-21 for three touchdowns in the win. Teammate Romeo Doubs, a receiver, had six catches for 151 yards and one of the touchdowns, and to add insult to injury, Darnell Savage had a 64-yard interception return for a touchdown.
Prescott, unfortunately for Cowboys fans, had another forgettable playoff performance – sure, he threw for 403 yards, but two very bad, costly interceptions that helped the Packers build a 27-7 lead before Dallas finally scored, with a handful of seconds left in the first half.
Prescott threw three touchdowns, as well.
It was Dallas’ second time in the last three years to go out in the wild card, or first round, of the NFC playoffs. The painful thing is knowing that if the Cowboys had won on Sunday, they would have been home again next weekend, with a good chance to advance to San Francisco for the NFC title game – or to host it, should the 49ers fall next week.
Now, that won’t happen.
Green Bay, the largest longshot in this year’s NFC playoffs at the seven seed, tied a franchise record for most points in a playoff game and will head to the West Coast next week to play at top-seeded San Fran, who had the bye this weekend, due to being that No. 1 seed. Baltimore had the bye in the AFC.
The game between the Packers and 49ers will be on Saturday night at 7:15 p.m. Central time on FOX.
It will also mark the 10th time the 49ers and Packers have met in the postseason, a new NFL record. The 49ers lead that playoff series, 5-4, ended the Packers’ season in the 2019 and 2021 seasons, and also has won the last four overall meetings between the teams.
Back to Sunday’s game against Dallas.
Prescott hit tight end Jake Ferguson to give the Cowboys their first points of the game on the last play of the half (a 27-7 Green Bay lead by then), and Dallas scored again, this time a 34-yard field goal by Brandon Aubrey, on the first drive of the second half to get within 17 (27-10 Packers).
But Green Bay came right back with a 9-yard touchdown run by Jones, at that point his third of the game, and put the Pack back up by 24 (34-10).
Dallas got within 16 before time in the 2023 season ran out.
The Cowboys finish the season with a 12-6 overall record, but the first-round loss raises questions: will head coach Mike McCarthy be brought back for the final year of his contract? Will defensive coordinator Dan Quinn take a head coaching job, as was expected, or did this showing not only ruin that, but any chance he might have had at coaching the Cowboys if McCarthy was dismissed?
What of Prescott? Another playoff game with costly turnovers.
And the defense, it was simply dreadful. That’s not an editorial comment. Micah Parsons, considered by most Cowboys fans the best defensive player in the NFL, had three total tackles, no sacks, and one quarterback hit. In fact, Dallas had no sacks. Not one.
There is this unfortunate mark in NFL history: the Cowboys become the first team to win at least 12 games in three straight seasons without making a conference championship game.
