The Dallas Cowboys were rolling into the 2023 postseason. After a 12-5 campaign, the Cowboys landed the No. 2 seed and hosted the 7-seeded Green Bay Packers, who just squeaked into the playoffs.
The game was never close. The Packers led 27-0 immediately and went on to win 48-32. If history is any indication, the Packers should like their chances on Sunday night. It’s not just the playoff matchup that justifies Green’s confidence. The Packers are 5-0 against Dallas all-time at AT&T Stadium. If you want to include the Super Bowl in the 2010-11 season, they are 6-0 at the stadium.
Those past games have no actual bearing on how this one will play out, as the rosters are different. However, many familiar faces from 2023 remain on both sides.
Still, when you’re 5-0 against a team at their home since the stadium opened and you’ve won 10 of the last 11 in the series overall, you can maybe justify a little cockiness.
Just as impressive? In those five wins against the Cowboys in Jerry World, Green Bay has scored at least 34 points in each contest. It’s a staggering number, one to keep in mind for Sunday when the Packers face what has been an atrocious Dallas defense.
There’s plenty of juice going into any Packers-Cowboys matchup, but this one offers a couple of other reasons for enthusiasm.
One, it’s a standalone primetime, and it will be the first time the Packers play the Cowboys in Dallas on Sunday Night Football.
Secondly, are we really going to bury the lead and not talk about Micah Parsons going up against the organization that just traded him to the Packers right before the season started?
Jerry Jones can have a defining moment on Sunday if the Cowboys beat a Packers team that many viewed as a juggernaut before the Week 3 loss in Cleveland.
As for Parsons’ return, Jones knows it’s a big deal and said as much to 105.3 The Fan in Dallas when they asked him earlier in the week if there’s extra drive to win this game against this team that has that player.
Of course, I’ve said this time and time again, I think the world of Micah as an individual and of course know him well. I might say, ‘I wish him well,’ except it’s obvious I don’t this weekend in terms of Green Bay winning the game. And so, it makes for an exciting time.
The relationship ended poorly, or at least it appeared that way, with negotiations on an extension stalling for months and Parsons demanding a trade out of Dallas. He was granted that wish, shockingly, when the Cowboys sent him to the Packers.
Jones is downplaying any of the bad-blood narratives that have circulated.
It was nothing personal. I told you, I liked Micah. As much as people wanted to make that of it, there was no issue regarding feelings relative to the negotiations. Certainly not on my part. It was just par for the course.
Parsons was on that Cowboys team that Love shredded in 2023. There’s been a peculiar aspect to this rivalry, where the Packers have dominated it so much that you almost expect the football gods or the law of averages to take over at some point, with Dallas finally getting a win. Instead, the Packers have just as many playoff wins (three) as the Cowboys do in AT&T Stadium.
The prime opportunity for the Cowboys to shift the narrative came in the 2023 playoffs. Dallas tied for the best record in the NFC and was awarded the No. 2 seed in the conference. The Packers had to grind just to get into the playoffs with a 9-8 record.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys and Cowboys fans, the game turned out to be a horror movie they have seen one too many times. The only difference was that the villain in this one wasn’t Aaron Rodgers. It was Jordan Love, notching his first-career playoff victory.
Despite the brutal loss to Cleveland last week, the Packers should feel good about their chances Sunday night. Dallas’ defense appears to be a lost cause. Although the offense has been effective, it will be without its main weapon, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. It’s a major gut punch for a unit that has had to carry a lot of weight through three weeks, given the struggles on the other side of the ball.
If history tells us anything, it’s that the Packers will roll into Jerry World on Sunday night and fly back to Wisconsin with a 3-1 record heading into the bye week. Anything outside of that would be a bit of a head-scratcher.
The goal for Green Bay is to get to that mark and have Cowboys fans leaving AT&T Stadium Sunday night wondering, Why did we think it’d be different this time?