There might not be a more anticlimactic result in all of sports than a tie, especially when a game is as exciting and back-and-forth as the battle between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys this Sunday in their 40-40 draw. Seeing a game end that way just doesn’t feel right. When both teams consistently march up and down the field like they did, it only feels right that one should walk away victorious while the other wallows in defeat and spends the next week thinking, “What if?”
As Packers defensive end Rashan Gary put it after the game, “It’s not a win. It’s not a loss. But it don’t feel good.”
That’s perfectly put, Rashan.
Unfortunately for Gary, the Packers, and their fans, the upcoming bye means two full weeks to sit and stew over one of the most frustrating results in sports.
Sunday night’s matchup had all the makings of a get-right game for Green Bay. Coming off a heartbreaking loss in Cleveland last Sunday and the offense’s inability to get anything going, they faced one of the league’s worst-ranked defenses (30th, to be exact) in Arlington, Texas.
Getting off to a quick two-score lead, it felt like the Packers from Weeks 1 and 2 were back, and last week was just a blip on the radar. Unfortunately, Green Bay’s defense and special teams didn’t get the memo. While the offense racked up 489 total yards and 40 points, the defense rewarded them by surrendering 436 yards and 38 points. Not sure anybody had a shootout on their bingo card, but that’s exactly what we got.
Even though this game ended in a tie for both teams, I couldn’t help but feel that the Cowboys walked away the winners. They get to build off their encouraging offensive outburst next Sunday against the New York Jets, while the Packers disperse for a week, and then regroup for the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 6.
In some respects, the bye week is coming at the right time, with two starters along the offensive line nursing injuries and now two starters on the defensive side of the football joining them. Defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt left with a knee injury, and Nate Hobbs exited with a concussion. The off week should give them time to heal, hopefully allowing Green Bay to be at full strength when Cincinnati visits.
Green Bay’s bye week is going to be ultra-important not only for healing but also for self-reflection. The Packers need to use this downtime to really look inward and figure out who they are as a football team, because after four weeks, I still have no idea. In the first two games, they were led primarily by a dominant defense, with the offense – despite putting up 27 points each week – still working out its kinks.
In Week 3, the defense carried the load again, while the offense stalled throughout the afternoon. Against the Cowboys, it seemed the offense got a B-12 shot while the defense couldn’t get off the field. So far, the Packers are this season’s version of Jekyll and Hyde. One week, they resemble an offensive football team; the next, they rely on defense. Good teams find their identity early on so they can build around it through the bulk of their schedule, and Matt LaFleur needs to figure that out this week.
LaFleur cannot allow this result to reverberate throughout the rest of the season, or things could quickly begin to unravel. The Packers are the better team than the Cowboys, but they didn’t play like it on Sunday.
Looking at the rest of their schedule, they look to be the better team on paper than just about everyone else they are slated to face, and they need to believe that going in. LaFluer and his team leaders can help deliver that message to the team, and based on some of the words coming out of the locker room after the game, it seems that’s already starting – at least if you listen to superstar Micah Parsons.
“Two things can happen,” Parsons said. “We can go into that locker room, or we can go home, put our heads down, and just blame each other and point the finger. Or we can be men, and we can say, this is where I’m coming from, this is where you’re coming from, and how do we fix it?
“I think we gotta be adults here. We gotta be professionals, and we gotta find a way to be positive. We’re in a rough patch right now, and we owe an obligation to ourselves.”
Parsons might still be new to the team, but those were the words of a true leader.
As annoying and frustrating as ties are, the fact remains that it wasn’t a loss. In a way, it could actually end up helping Matt LaFleur’s team down the stretch when it comes to playoff scenarios.
The Packers are still undefeated against NFC competition, as their only loss came against the AFC’s Cleveland Browns. That could give them the upper hand in a tiebreaker scenario. If teams don’t face each other head-to-head during the regular season, the win-loss-tie percentage in conference games is the second criterion used for playoff tiebreakers. So, while winning is obviously better than tying, avoiding a loss could ultimately help their playoff seeding, especially since it came against another NFC opponent.
A tie isn’t devastating in the standings, but if the Packers don’t come out of the bye with a sense of urgency to correct what went wrong, then we could be looking at more disappointing results in the future.
Three of the next four games coming out of the bye week are very winnable: the struggling Bengals at home, the inconsistent Arizona Cardinals on the road, and the woeful Carolina Panthers coming to Lambeau. Of course, the big showdown with Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers is mixed in there.
Let’s hope by the end of the season, this tie is nothing but a distant memory and an ugly mark in the column.