The second day of Super Wild Card Weekend did not go as expected, at least for the Dallas Cowboys. Filled with Super Bowl aspirations, the Cowboys fell in the wild card round for the second time in three years as the Green Bay Packers ran them out of AT&T Stadium (and the game wasn’t even that close).
Jordan Love left his mark in the Packers victory, as Green Bay became the first No. 7 seed to win a playoff game in the expanded playoff format. The Cowboys have gone 13 consecutive postseasons without reaching the conference championship game, the longest such streak in NFL history.
The Lions also won their first playoff game since 1991, and just their second playoff game since 1957. Detroit will host two playoff games for the first time in franchise history.
With Sunday’s wild card games in the rearview, here’s what we learned from both contests and how that will carry over to the divisional round and next week.
Cowboys continue to stink in January
Every year the story remains the same in Dallas. The Cowboys blow out bad football teams and pad the point differential to look like one of the best teams in the NFL. This year was no different.
Against teams that finished with a losing record, the Cowboys were 8-1 with a point differential of +204. Against teams that finished with a winning record, the Cowboys were 4-4 with a point differential of -10. The Cowboys averaged 34.3 points against teams with losing records and 25.0 against teams with winning records. Dallas was the third team in NFL history with nine wins by 20-plus points in a season (1999 Rams, 2007 Patriots) and won 16 straight home games (six of which by 20-plus points).
This team was always going to be judged in January, and they laid an egg to the No. 7 seed in the playoffs. Dallas played a playoff game at home and trailed 48-16 in the fourth quarter. This was a team that was 8-0 with a +172 point differential in the regular season at home. This is the largest regular season home point differential by any team to lose playoff opener at home in NFL history, per CBS Sports Research.
The Cowboys faced a team with a winning record and lost, but that shouldn’t be a surprise given the defense allowed 26.3 points a game against teams with winning records and 11.7 against teams with losing records.
Dallas is now 5-13 in the playoffs since winning its last Super Bowl, failing to advance past the divisional round. For all the hoopla that comes with the Cowboys when they blow out bad teams, they certainly are that bad team in January.
Dak Prescott still can’t take Cowboys to the Super Bowl
Prescott was great at padding up those numbers in garbage time in Sunday’s blowout loss. After the Cowboys trailed 48-16 in the fourth quarter, Prescott finished 17 of 21 for 210 yards with two touchdowns and a 140.1 passer rating. Prior to that point, Prescott was 24 of 39 for 193 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions (61.2 rating), including two poor interceptions (one a pick six) that led to 14 Green Bay points.
Prescott is 2-5 in his postseason career, tied for the worst postseason record for any quarterback that has made a minimum of five playoff starts. He still hasn’t made a conference championship game in his nine seasons in the league, despite quarterbacking a team that has won 12-plus games in four of the five tries he has made the postseason.
Prescott’s two playoff wins were against teams with a combined 18-15 record (.545 win percentage). His playoff losses are against teams with a combined 57-27 record (.679), three of which are at home.
The Cowboys are going to have a make a decision whether Prescott can take this team to wher ethey want to go. He certainly struggles at beating the good teams in January — and playing well against such teams.
Jordan Love, Packers have very bright future
The Packers were the first No. 7 seed to win a playoff game in the 14-team playoff era (since 2020). No. 7 seeds were 0-6 in the playoffs prior to the Packers’ blowout win over the Cowboys, a game which Jordan Love finished 16 of 21 for 272 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in the win.
Love tied C.J. Stroud (who finished with a 157.2 rating on Saturday) for the fourth-highest single-game passer rating in NFL playoff history. Only Terry Bradshaw (158.3 in 1976), Peyton Manning (158.3 in 2003) and Josh Allen (157.6 in 2021) had a higher mark. Not only did Love shine in the win, the Packers put up 48 points on the road — tied for the second most in a playoff game in NFL history.
Green Bay is the the youngest team to ever win a playoff game (average age of 25 years and 214 days). The future is now for a team that is loaded with playmakers across the board, already having a franchise quarterback to lead them for the next decade (just like Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers).
Lions were right trading for Jared Goff
The Lions hit the reset button when they moved on from Matthew Stafford, giving him an opportunity to win a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams. Detroit got Goff as the centerpiece of the trade and selected Jameson Williams, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Sam LaPorta in a series of trades with the draft picks they acquired from the Stafford deal.
Goff led the Lions to their first playoff victory since 1991, beating Stafford in Detroit’s first playoff game in seven years (first home playoff game since 1993). The Lions quarterback finished 22 of 27 for 277 yards with a touchdown and zero interceptions (121.8 rating), becoming the first quarterback to beat his former head coach in the playoffs since Brett Favre beat Mike Holmgren in 2007. Goff also was the first quarterback to beat his former team in the playoffs in 28 years (Favre also did this in 1995 against the Falcons).
Dan Campbell has done nothing but stick with Goff throughout the duo’s three seasons in Detroit continuing to elevate the franchise and the city as the win total improved every year. Now, the duo have won a playoff game and a divisional round game at home.
Goff isn’t an elite quarterback, but he knows how to win in the playoffs. Campbell is putting Goff in the best possible position to succeed, and he’s rewarding his head coach for his faith in him. Detroit is a win away from the conference championship game as a result.
Rams continue to lose games against playoff teams
The Rams were billed as the team no one wanted to face heading into the postseason, but they shouldn’t have been. Heading into the playoffs, Los Angeles was 2-6 against playoff teams (and one of them was Week 18 and their opponent rested starters).
In essence the Rams struggled against good teams. That held true in Sunday’s loss to the Lions, as the Rams couldn’t score a touchdown in the second half of the loss, failing to get into the end zone in each of their last four drives.
Regardless of how the Rams fared against playoff teams, the team still has a bright future. Puka Nacua is already one of the best wide receivers in the NFL (and was a rookie this year), Kyren Williams is a top-five running back, while Byron Young and Kobie Turner are future stars on defense. They also will probably still have Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and Aaron Donald around.
The Rams should be a player in the NFC over the next several seasons.
