It’s been a wild ride for Packer Nation. Regardless of your thoughts on this team heading into the season, the Packers have either met or already exceeded preseason expectations…and now they’re playing with House Money.

How’d They Get Here?

Green Bay- talk about a roller-coaster of a season. There were initial glimpses of talent and capabilities with this young team right out of the gate. After starting the season 2-1, and were a play away from beginning 3-0, the Packers found themselves at 2-5 with almost no one thinking Jordan Love was even good, let alone the future of the franchise. However, after surviving Joe Barry’s amazing defensive output vs. easy wins in the Giants and Buccaneers, the Packers are now the 7th seed and seek to become the first 7th seed to hoist the Lombardi Trophy, or just win a game in the postseason.

Dallas- after opening the season in a resounding way, routing the Giants 40-0, the Cowboys kept scoring. They dropped a game vs. the then worst team in the NFL, Arizona Cardinals, and were blasted by the San Francisco 49ers – Jerry’s team kept putting up points, especially at home. Dallas went 8-0 with an average margin of victory of 21.5 points/game. Yes, that includes their final home game vs. Detroit where they won 20-19, on a correctly called illegal touching on the Lions’ 2-point try to win the game.

Significance of this Game…

Green Bay- we’ve already covered this, but the Packers have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Experience is first and foremost, but if Green Bay is somehow able to win this game, the kids will then have had experience of winning a road playoff game – which would be incredible.

Dallas- No team has more pressure (self-inflicted or otherwise) than the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl. The fan base is huge and obnoxious, not the worst, but it’s up there. It’s been well-documented that Dallas hasn’t seen a conference Title game since 1995…so we’re on year 28. To put that in perspective for fans my age, the Packers’ Super Bowl XXXI win in the 1996 season was 29 years after their last one in 1967…yeah, we’re old.

Needless to say, this is a must-win for the Cowboys, especially head coach Mike McCarthy. If Green Bay comes down to Dallas and wins, again, that could potentially end his tenure in Arlington, TX.

Green Bay- Jordan Love has an incredible opportunity to really put his name on the map. He’s already sure to get paid this offseason (current deal runs through next year, but no one has a lame duck Head Coach or starting QB).

Matchup

As you can see, Dallas is better in every category, and have played that way throughout the season. They obliterated bad teams, however they were exposed by the 49ers (42-10) and Bills (31-10). While many people go into deep-dive analytics with DVOA, etc., the Cowboys are just flat out good. However, they only went 3-4 vs. playoff teams this season, while Green Bay finished 3-3. While Dallas has the edge in overall talent and experience, they do come up short in big games, often.

Players to Watch

Aaron Jones owns the Cowboys much in the same as Aaron Rodgers owns the Bears. Jones has been incredible vs. Dallas in his career, and even had a 4 TD game down there. Tom Silverstein has a solid article highlighting just that, along with a few other areas Green Bay can attack Dallas and pull out the upset.

• Micah Parsons, LB #11
• Tony Pollard, HB #20
• Jake Ferguson, TE #87
• Ceedee Lamb, WR #88

Prediction

Packers 27 (+7)
Cowboys 31

Season: 4-13 (not my best showing, but picking against us has worked so far…)
Overall: 91-65