It is important to remember that the Dallas Cowboys have the capacity to take a situation that is highly winnable and turn it into a humiliating predicament. This is true regardless of the stakes or the expectations for the postseason performance. As a result of their wild-card home defeat to the team with the lowest seed in the NFC playoff field on Sunday, head coach Mike McCarthy and his 12-5 squad demonstrated just how important this lesson is.
The second-seeded Cowboys, who had a perfect record at home throughout the regular season, were defeated by the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers by a score of 48-32. This was a brilliant and unbelievable chokejob that the Cowboys orchestrated. The only reason the final score was so close was because the Cowboys started playing competently in the fourth quarter, when all of the pressure had subsided and the Packers had brought in some replacements. This was the only reason the score was so close. The offense of Green Bay was able to put together an eight-minute drive that culminated in a touchdown run by Aaron Jones. This drive was the very first possession of the game. And from that point on, things only got worse for Dallas.
Since the very beginning, the Cowboys have been an out of sorts team. The offense appeared to be under a great deal of pressure and tension, as if a 7-0 deficit in the first quarter was the most difficult obstacle in the entire universe. There were a few animated conversations that took place between quarterback Dak Prescott and his standout receiver CeeDee Lamb in an effort to communicate and get on the same page. During the early stages of the game, McCarthy engaged in a conversation with Lamb on his own. It was obvious that this team was not prepared.
The formidable defense that was led by defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, whose chances of being hired as a head coach dropped precipitously in a matter of hours, continued to leave people with a lot of gaps in their coverage. In the moment that Dontayvion Wicks scored a touchdown on third-and-7 to extend Green Bay’s advantage to 20-0, the Cowboys had a sense of difficulty, yet they were still able to achieve their goal.
