The Dallas Cowboys within the playoffs are all the time a must-watch, often for all of the improper causes. With their Nineties run of dominance firmly in time’s rearview mirror, the Cowboys’ Twenty first-century legacy principally consists of postseason disappointment. After grabbing the NFC’s second seed within the common season, it felt like these Cowboys ought to have simply dealt with a visiting Inexperienced Bay Packers workforce that many thought had been simply joyful to be right here.
Besides, these are the Cowboys, a workforce who haven’t made it to the NFC Championship Sport since 1995. At this level, their followers have come to count on embarrassment regardless of how closely the chances appear stacked of their favor.
Nonetheless, not even probably the most pessimistic followers imagined that Dallas’s protection would enable the Packers to attain 27 unanswered factors within the first half on Sunday, their largest playoff deficit since 1969. Dallas wanted a defensive penalty to attain a landing earlier than the top of the half simply to make it 27-7 heading into the break.
The momentum didn’t carry over into the second half, as MVP of the Week candidate Aaron Jones answered together with his third dashing landing of the sport early within the third quarter. That successfully ended Dallas’s comeback hopes, though just a few Dallas touchdowns in rubbish time resulted in a closing 48-32 scoreline that made the sport look barely much less just like the epic beatdown that it actually was. In spite of everything, the Cowboys’ earlier excessive so far as factors allowed in a postseason recreation was 38; the Packers topped that by the third quarter on Sunday.
Whereas Inexperienced Bay’s second-half protection left one thing to be desired, it was nonetheless a powerful street victory. As soon as once more, the franchise has managed a profitable quarterback succession, changing Aaron Rodgers with understudy Jordan Love simply as Rodgers changed Brett Favre years prior. Love threw for 3 touchdowns in an offensive clinic. It doesn’t matter what occurs subsequent week towards the top-seeded San Francisco 49ers, the Packers’ rebuild is forward of schedule.
If there’s one one who had probably the most to lose on Sunday, in additional methods than one, it was head coach Mike McCarthy. He nearly actually hoped to get revenge on the Packers, the workforce who fired him in 2018. As an alternative, the Cowboys put collectively perhaps their most humiliating first-round exit but. Given the Cowboys’ 28-year-long Tremendous Bowl drought, it’s potential that the Packers might have induced McCarthy to lose yet one more job. (He’s nonetheless in a job at time of writing on Sunday evening, that might properly have modified by the point you learn this on Monday morning. After the sport, Jones stated he had “nothing set” on when he deliberate to satisfy McCarthy).
If he’s gone, the rumors are additionally on the market that Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones could possibly be considering Invoice Belichick, who must change into the winningest head coach in NFL historical past with a brand new franchise after “mutually parting methods” with the New England Patriots. On paper, it’s an intriguing idea, as Belichick gained a document six Tremendous Bowls in New England, and two extra ones because the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator.
Nonetheless, there are issues that Jones could be committing the cardinal sports activities sin of hiring big-name expertise primarily based on previous efficiency whereas ignoring indicators of decline. Belichick has struggled to win in his final 4 seasons in New England – the Patriots performed only one playoff recreation after Tom Brady left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a blowout loss to the Buffalo Payments.
Even assuming Belichick is extra profitable with a extra proficient roster, inevitable persona clashes between Jones and Belichick, two males accustomed to having full management over their groups, would make this an especially unstable state of affairs. In reality, it is going to be a unstable state of affairs regardless of who the top coach goes ahead. The Cowboys gig is probably not as enticing because it appears given the workforce’s sky-high expectations, Jones’s insistence on being his personal normal supervisor and their historical past of underachieving underneath his watch.
In spite of everything, it hasn’t actually made a distinction who Dallas’s head coach or beginning quarterback has been within the Twenty first century. Although they’re probably the most worthwhile franchise in sports activities, the Cowboys’ postseason ineptitude has change into as predictable as a operating gag in a sitcom. By way of raking in revenue, Jones has been an unquestioned success. By way of placing collectively a profitable workforce regardless of having all of the sources on the planet, Jones continues to be a large failure. Similar because it ever was.
MVP of the week
CJ Stroud, QB, Houston Texans. Often this award requires much more thought, however whenever you change into the youngest quarterback ever to win a playoff recreation, that just about makes you a lock in our e book. The rookie quarterback threw for 3 touchdowns within the Texans’ blowout 45-14 victory over the Cleveland Browns, with out throwing a single interception and never being sacked as soon as (with some help from his offensive line). Alongside the way in which he went 16-for-21 for a complete of 274 yards. He was simply the most effective participant on the sector on Saturday, though he’ll face a a lot harder opponent subsequent week because the Texans will probably be on the street to face the Baltimore Ravens and certain MVP Lamar Jackson. Keep tuned!
Stat of the week
57 years. That’s how lengthy it had been since a Cleveland Browns quarterback had given up a pick-six within the playoffs, earlier than Joe Flacco threw one to the Houston Texans’ Steven Nelson. The final time it occurred was when Frank Ryan was picked off by the Dallas Cowboys’ Cornell Inexperienced again in 1967.
Sadly, Browns followers wouldn’t have to attend practically as lengthy for his or her subsequent one as Flacco threw a second pick-six, this one to Christian Harris, on the very subsequent drive. That basically ended the sport, because the Texans had been in a position to relaxation their starters in the course of the fourth quarter. Contemplating that Flacco was all however retired just a few months prior, it’s fairly possible that this may mark the top of his memorable NFL profession. It was a pleasant Cinderella story whereas it lasted, however even her carriage needed to revert again to a pumpkin ultimately.
Video of the week
At -4F (-20C) at kickoff, it was the coldest ever recreation in Arrowhead Stadium. Within the stands, beer cans exploded like sodas left within the freezer for too lengthy. Then, within the second half, Mahomes’s helmet cracked after absorbing a tough hit.
By the top of the evening, the temperature had dipped as little as -27F (-32C) when factoring within the wind chill, making it one of many coldest NFL video games of all time. It couldn’t have been a enjoyable expertise for the Chiefs, notably for Mahomes who needed to play the second half with a substitute helmet. Nonetheless, the poor Chiefs followers huddled up within the stands, bought to see Kansas Metropolis simply defeat the Miami Dolphins 26-7.
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Elsewhere across the league
The primary storyline for Sunday evening’s marquee recreation between the Los Angeles Rams and the Detroit Lions concerned the curious case of the quarterback carousel. Lions quarterback Jared Goff was the Rams sign caller till 2020, when the workforce traded him to Detroit … for Matthew Stafford. It was a transfer that the Rams would do over once more in a heartbeat on condition that Stafford led them to a Tremendous Bowl within the 2021 season. On the time, Lions followers had been joyful for Stafford, on condition that he had been caught in a seemingly hopeless state of affairs in Detroit. Plus, they wanted one thing to rejoice having not appeared in a playoff recreation since 2016 and never gained one since 1992. On Sunday, now that Stafford was standing between them and ending that dropping streak, they had been more than pleased to root towards him for at the least an evening.
The sport was a back-and-forth affair and never with out controversy. The referees halted a promising Detroit drive on the finish of the primary half after calling a false begin on what was nearly actually a impartial zone infraction. Later, Stafford returned to the sport after apparently being knocked out chilly by Lions defenders.
Whereas the Rams made it a 24-23 recreation late, the Lions held them off to safe victory by the best of margins. It’s arduous to say who was extra relieved after the sport, Goff or the long-suffering followers at Ford Subject.
The Lions may have yet one more dwelling recreation to play this season after they face the winners of Monday’s recreation between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Philadelphia Eagles within the Divisional Spherical. Who might have imagined?
Prepare for a uncommon Wild Card Prolonged Weekend! That was already going to be the case, with the reeling Philadelphia Eagles scheduled to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday evening. Nevertheless, the climate situations turned it into an unscheduled doubleheader, with the Buffalo Payments’ recreation towards the Pittsburgh Steelers postponed till 4.30 pm EST on Monday after a large snowstorm made taking part in throughout Sunday afternoon an impossibility. There have been calls to push kickoff again even additional – snow was falling at a price of as much as six inches an hour on Sunday in some areas close to Buffalo – however New York governor Kathy Hochul stated the sport will nonetheless go forward. “I’m not saying it’s going to be nice, however situations gained’t be life threatening both,” she stated.
As typical, it was a brutal Black Monday across the league however the greatest information didn’t change into official till just a few days later. As talked about earlier, the New England Patriots moved on from Belichick though the writing was on the wall in the course of the earlier Sunday’s loss to the New York Jets. Make no mistake, if the Patriots wished Belichick again they might have discovered a approach to maintain him.
On Saturday they promoted linebackers coach Jerod Mayo, who was in New England for his total eight-year NFL taking part in profession, as his successor, making certain that there’ll at the least be some connection to their glory days. His first main job will probably be determining methods to remedy the mess that has been their quarterback state of affairs since Brady left.
Over the weekend, experiences emerged that the NFL is in search of to purchase a big share of ESPN, the community that basically dictates how the league is roofed within the US. It’s considerably worrying from a journalistic perspective, on condition that the NFL would have even higher leverage to suppress damaging protection of the league. However critics additionally identified that ESPN has not too long ago branched into sports activities betting, elevating conflict-of-interest issues. Keep tuned.
Congratulations in case you had been in a position to watch Dolphins-Chiefs stay on Saturday evening within the US (until, I suppose. you had been a diehard Dolphins fan, wherein case, our condolences). In its quest for extra money, the NFL accepted a big sum of money from NBC handy over the unique broadcasting rights to streaming service Peacock. It’s the type of bare money seize an organization can pull off after they have a product that ensures large viewing numbers in a fragmented media panorama.
Talking of the Miami Dolphins, their season could have successfully ended with their loss to the Buffalo Payments proper earlier than the postseason started. As one would think about, the freezing temperatures at Arrowhead didn’t find yourself favoring the workforce accustomed to taking part in in heat climate. Within the unforgiving local weather, the Dolphins, probably the greatest offenses within the common season, managed to attain only a single landing. It’s arduous to not assume it might have gone in another way had they overwhelmed the Payments and gained the AFC East, making certain home-field benefit of their first playoff recreation. As an alternative, it ended up being Miami’s final this season.
