Tag: Dallas Cowboys vs Green Bay packers

Wild-card Inactives: Cowboys’ Trey Lance not up, Packers’ Alexander and Watson to play

The Cowboys and Packers are near full strength for the wild card matchup as key corners are active and AJ Dillon is out for Green Bay. | From @CDBurnett7

It’s all hands on deck for the wild-card round. The Dallas Cowboys have been battling an illness as a team for the last month. On Saturday, backup quarterback Cooper Rush became the latest to be impacted, being a late addition to the injury report. He’s apparently recovered well enough to be active as Dak Prescott’s backup. Trey Lance will be inactive as the emergency third quarterback yet again.

As for their opponents, the Green Bay Packers are without running back A.J. Dillon. Wide receiver Christian Watson (hamstring) and cornerback Jaire Alexander (anle)are both active after being game-time decisions and listed as questionable this week. Cowboys-Packers kicks off at 3:30 p.m., and here’s the full list of inactives ahead of kickoff.

How to watch, stream Cowboys-Packers wild-card round, plus top prop bets

Here’s how to catch the action, in more ways than one, when the Cowboys take on the Packers in the wild-card round.

It’s finally gameday and the Dallas Cowboys are on their way. The 2023 playoffs started off with both home teams securing easy victories on Saturday, and Mike McCarthy’s troops will look to continue the trend in the first game on Sunday.

The first game, now, after the Steeler-Bills kickoff was moved from Sunday at noon to Monday afternoon thanks to the wintry weather in Buffalo. Things will be cold in Dallas, but playing indoors at home where the team has won 16 straight games will protect the Cowboys from inclement weather and hopefully give them an advantage. Here’s a look at all of the game info, how to watch, stream and listen and a couple prop bets for those inclined.

Cowboys 55-man roster for wild-card round: Elevations add needed depth at LB

The Cowboys begin their playoff journey with a roster slightly tilted towards defensive depth after two wild-card call-ups. | From @KDDrummondNFL

One of the biggest discussions over the last month of the regular season was the Dallas Cowboys’ plan at the off-ball linebacker position. Entering training camp, the plan was clear. Dallas had found a gem in third-round pick DeMarion Overshown and planned to pair him with Leighton Vander Esch as the starting duo. Behind them, second-year man Damone Clark would be the fill-in, and depth behind them could easily be managed.

By December, only Clark remained and he was being pair with converted safety Markquese Bell. The club has brought in and let go former first-round pick Rashaan Evans, and used a rotation of practice squad call-ups to help with the depth. That’s the angle the team is taking entering their home playoff game against Green Bay, using both of their call-ups on the position.

Dallas has activated both Malik Jefferson and Buddy Johnson, eschewing help from late practice squad signing Damien Wilson and offensive lineman La’el Collins.

Here’s a look at the 55-man roster for the contest.

Quarterbacks (3)
Running Backs (3)
Wideouts (6)
Tight Ends (3)
Offensive Tackles (5)
Offensive Guards (3)
Centers (2)

Defensive Ends (5)
Defensive Tackles (5)
Linebacker (5)
Cornerbacks (6)
Safeties (6)

Special Teams (3)

Here’s how the Cowboys win vs Packers in 2023 wild-card round

A steady diet of Lamb is the first ingredient Dallas needs in order to punch their ticket to the divisional round. | From @cdpiglet

That was quite the entertaining regular season the Dallas Cowboys just completed. They tied for the best record in the NFC and have the second seed in the playoffs thanks to an MVP-level QB, possibly the best receiver in the league, three All-Pro offensive linemen, the best pass rusher in the NFL, and the top corner.

None of those performances matter now.

The tournament begins Sunday, and the players and coaching staff must perform as well as they have during the season or it will all have been for naught. Everything is set up for them: they haven’t lost at home in 16 games, and the team they are up against is the only one younger than them. The Green Bay Packers aren’t yet playoff tested like the Cowboys are, and Dallas is as healthy as a team can expect to be in this part of the season.

The Cowboys will always be judged by this time of the year. If they make it to an NFC Championship game, the season could be seen as a victory, but they need to win the game against the Packers first. The pressure is on, and here are the things they need to accomplish and avoid in order to move on to the divisional round.

Michigan, South Carolina, Mississippi St. have most alums in Cowboys-Packers matchup

How well represented is your favorite school or university in Sunday’s showdown between the Cowboys and Packers? | From @KDDrummondNFL

With college football crowning their champion earlier in the week, fans of the professional amateurs will have a huge void to fill in their lives now. It’s been over a month since Saturday action was a regular occurrence in their lives, but there’s now a finality of the season seeing the Michigan Wolverines earn the title.

But that doesn’t mean fans have to curtail their rooting interests until September. No, alumni are still represented when the NFL takes the field, as they will for the next five weeks with the playoff tournament leading to the Super Bowl. Fans of college teams track their players into the pro ranks, so it’s a fun exercise to see which schools are most represented.

For the wild-card matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers, a whopping 28 schools have at least two representatives on a roster.

Including players who have been placed on IR throughout the year, the two clubs have 140 participants. 86 different schools are represented by those players, some of which attended junior colleges and others who transferred.

Admittedly, this list is going to contain a few errors and omissions. Pro Football Reference is the best resource for this list, but even they have some misses.

For instance, they didn’t list Butler CC among Michael Gallup’s schools, but he was there for two years before transferring to Colorado State. Butler’s own website didn’t even list Dallas CB Eric Scott.

Schools and alums, please forgive any errors.

Cowboys-Packers final wild-card injury report: Alexander missing, Gilmore good

The final injury report for Sunday’s wild-card game shows each team’s status and what’s been ailing them. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys ended their regular season with a serious question about their starting cornerback. The Green Bay Packers ended theirs with no such concerns. But as the week of practice leading up to Sunday’s wild-card matchup has concluded, the two teams have reversed positions.

Friday’s practice came with an escalated workout for Stephon Gilmore, who dislocated his shoulder in the Week 18 win in Washington. Meanwhile Jaire Alexander twisted his ankle in practice on Wednesday and hasn’t seen the football field since. Gilmore wasn’t even given a game designation of questionable, that’s how well he’s recovered.

The Cowboys have six players who’ve been monitored throughout the week, with the latest addition being Cooper Rush. It had appeared the club had kicked the illness bug, but Rush missed Friday’s practice. Hopefully no one else comes down with the cold over the next 48 hours.

Here’s a look at the full slate of injured players and how their weeks went.

Cowboys’ Micah Parsons extra-motivated for playoffs: ‘I’m going to be phenomenal’

From @ToddBrock24f7: Snubbed for 2 All-Pro lists this week and now maybe losing his defensive coordinator, Parsons could take it out on the Packers this Sunday.

Cowboys fans tuning in this Sunday to see the team’s postseason journey begin might find themselves a little confused at first. The TV guide may say “Cowboys vs. Packers,” but what’s playing out on the screen could very well look like an episode of Wild Kingdom at AT&T Stadium.

Because Micah Parsons just might eat an opposing player right there on the field.

The third-year edge rusher certainly has no shortage of motivation as the team heads into the wild-card round. Any one of these factors all by itself is enough to put Green Bay’s offensive linemen on the endangered species list, but put them all together, and the lion is primed to feast.

First, consider the NFLPA All-Pro list, which came out Wednesday. This roster, voted on by the league’s players themselves, put Myles Garrett and Maxx Crosby at edge rusher, despite the fact that Parsons had a higher overall grade, a higher pass rush grade, more quarterback hits, and more quarterback hurries than the Raiders great.

Parsons brushed off the slight, saying it didn’t bother him.

“If you look at some of the names on there, you can just tell people are just writing down names,” he explained. “So it’s not something that really matters, at least to players.”

Maybe. But then the job interview requests kept flooding in for his defensive coordinator. By midweek, Dan Quinn had the Panthers, Commanders, Chargers, and Titans officially courting him, and he was informally the leading candidate to take over in Seattle, where he spent several highly successful seasons a decade ago.

Parsons and Quinn came to Dallas within months of each other in 2021, with the first-round draft pick speaking of Quinn as almost a father figure more than a coach. So there’s extra urgency for Parsons to make this Cowboys postseason trip count, in case Quinn leaves.

“He means a lot to me because it’s not just about football,” Parsons said. “It could possibly be my last ride with Q. And if it is, we’re going to make sure it’s a damn good one.”

And now there’s the All-Pro Team. Friday saw the Associated Press release its list of 2023 honorees, and Parsons has missed making the first team for the first time in his short career. Garrett and T.J. Watt took those first-team edge rusher spots this year; Parsons and Crosby were relegated to the second team.

For the ultra-competitive Parsons, that likely won’t sit well. We’re talking about a guy who takes it as a personal affront when he’s not the best at anything, be it “Madden” or chess or locker-room hamper-basketball or sparring in the gym.

When Parsons showed up at the charity home run derby and found out the softball bats in the dugout were of the community-use variety, he famously sent someone to a nearby sporting goods store to buy him the best aluminum dinger-stick in stock.

He practically pulled something at the Pro Bowl in a 40-yard sprint-off with a casually coasting Tyreek Hill just for the bragging rights to say he beat The Cheetah.

Parsons can say none of it bothers him. Sure, Jan.

Or is it more likely that he’ll take the field this Sunday feeling like he still has plenty to prove to a few people?

Former Cowboys wide receiver and current Hanging’ With the Boys host Jesse Holley thinks it may start with Packers left tackle Rasheed Walker.

“He has no anchor. He’s not a nasty left tackle,” Holley said during the show this week. “Micah Parsons is going to abuse him.”

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If that’s what it takes to throw a few more sacks on the 14 Parsons amassed during the regular schedule, so be it. Because all those stats and everything it took just to get into the dance are one thing, but after a year where Parsons watched part-time mentor DeMarcus Ware attain football immortality in both the Hall of Fame and the Cowboys Ring of Honor, Parsons has more on his mind than regular-season accomplishments.

“The regular season is cute. But this is legacy. … ‘Be phenomenal or be forgotten.'”

That’s what Parsons said following the Week 18 game.

Now, snubbed for two different all-star squads, faced with possibly losing his defensive mentor, and on the precipice of Wild Card Weekend, he’s calling his shot.

“I’m going to be phenomenal,” he said. “[Expletive] phenomenal.”

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Here’s where the Cowboys’ defense thrives most, coverage or pass rush

How the Cowboys do rushing three, four, five or six+ pass rushers and does it make sense to populate coverage heading into the playoffs? | From @ReidDHanson

The NFL is an ever-evolving beast. One day the Tampa 2 defense is ruling the day, the next day the Seattle single high is the defensive de jour. In 2023, it’s versions of 2-high coverage (Cover 2, 4, 6) that’s captivating defensive coordinators.

The Vic Fangio discipline has smothered scoring league-wide in recent seasons. 10 QBs passed for 30 or more touchdowns in 2020. Nine passed for 30 or more in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, only four passers in each season hit the 30-mark, and in 2023 specifically, only the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott passed for over 32.

The Cowboys have generally resisted the trend of bend-but-don’t-break coverage. Dan Quinn has preferred to do what he knows best, and that’s Cover 1. Dallas led the NFL in Cover 1 usage in 2023 and doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to change that as they enter the postseason. Together with his amoeba-like front, Quinn is free to send three, four or even five rushers after the passer without any major disruptions in coverage.

While everyone else in the NFL is aggressively packing secondaries to limit chunk plays and make intermediate windows narrow, the Cowboys are still embracing the risk-reward nature of Cover 1.

With his favorite coverage to lean on, Dallas has been happy to mix up the pass rush. Notoriously not one to be blitz-happy, Quinn has taken on a more aggressive attitude of late, blitzing 28.5% of the time in 2023. This blitz rate ranks the Cowboys 13th in the league and has made the Dallas pass rush one of the NFL’s most feared units in the NFL.

Oddly enough, where the Cowboys have drawn the most criticism isn’t in their stubborn refusal to accept current NFL trends in coverage, it’s in their less aggressive defensive fronts. When Dallas doesn’t prioritize pressure and drops extra players into coverage, their defense has looked downright terrible at times. Is that a matter of the oft-unreliable “eye test” or do the number back it up?

Since the definition of blitz varies from outlet to outlet, let’s look at the actual numbers of pass rushers sent and the impact on EPA (numbers curtesy of Sumer Sports):

In standard four-man pass rushes, which Dallas uses 66.3% of the time, the Cowboys are producing a pressure rate of 30.5% and a -0.02 EPA/play. In five-man rushes, which the Cowboys use 27.6% of the time, they produce a pressure rate of 39.5% and an EPA/play of -0.12 (the more negative the number the better). In rushes of six or more, which Dallas deploys 3.9% of the time, the Cowboys produce a pressure rate of 40.9% and an EPA/play of -0.93.

Not surprisingly, more rushers have produced more pressure, and more pressure has produced better EPA results. Why? Because the secondary can handle it. But what about packing the secondary and sending three or less pass rushers?

While these situations haven’t happened often, the results have been pretty telling. In these situations, Dallas has produced a pressure rate of 23.1% and an EPA/play of +0.59. At just 2.3% of plays, it’s a small sample size but important to take note of nonetheless.

The Cowboys’ coverage scheme is built with pressure in mind. Ballhawks fly freely in the secondary and thrive with man coverage and nervous QBs. Stephon Gilmore is holding passers to a CPOE of -5.9 when targeted while DaRon Bland holds them to a dismal -12.0% CPOE. The Cowboys are essentially built to pressure passers and lean on their man-coverage CBs, and sometimes that means blitzing.

The Cowboys aren’t conforming to league trends and it’s working to their advantage. In a season in which big plays are hard to come by, the Cowboys are prone to give one here and there, but over the course of the season their style has served them well and they intend to lean on that style as they embark on the postseason.

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Cowboys vs Packers: 6 things to know about wild card opponent

A hot team with a plethora of young weapons are among the things to know about the Packers ahead of the wild-card round. | From @BenGrimaldi

The regular season is over and now the real fun begins for the Dallas Cowboys! Their goal of ending a quarter-century championship drought begins on wild-card weekend when the Cowboys host the Green Bay Packers.

It was hard to imagine the team hosting a playoff game at AT&T Stadium a few weeks ago, but a late season swoon by the Philadelphia Eagles made it possible. Dallas is notably undefeated at home this year and is riding a 16-game winning streak playing in “Jerry World,” so they’re very comfortable hosting the seventh-seeded Packers.

The Cowboys have said this year is about more than just getting to the postseason, the urgency is there to make a run at a championship. The time for talk is over, now it’s time for action. Here are six things to know about their weekend opponent.

Jourdan Lewis has regained form at a critical time for the Cowboys

Jourdan Lewis had a long and hard road back from injury but entering the postseason, he’s playing at peak levels and key to Cowboys success, finds @ReidDHanson

Jourdan Lewis’ 2023 season, in many ways, had been a season to forget for the 28-year-old veteran. After suffering a potentially career-ending foot injury roughly 15 months ago, 2023 marked a year of recovery, rehab, and grueling training for the Cowboys nickel CB.

Up until the injury, Lewis had been an ironman of sorts. He played 15 or more games in each of the five seasons prior and wasn’t familiar with the rigors of overcoming serious injury. Listed as a Lisfranc but described as something far more catastrophic, Lewis had to start at square one. It wasn’t just physically taxing but it was mentally difficult as well.

“There was doubt at the beginning that he would ever play again,” Britt Brown, Dallas longtime athletic trainer said of Lewis. “This was not a normal foot injury. This was like a car crash, where you crush your foot and it’s never the same.”

Lewis didn’t just need to get his foot back in football shape, but he essentially needed to learn to walk again with his surgically repaired foot. The laborious process understandably trickled into the new season, landing Lewis on the Cowboys PUP (physically unable to perform) list heading into training camp and buying the veteran time in his bid for a fantastic comeback.

At a cost of $6,137,244 against the cap, Lewis was Dallas’ tenth-largest cap cost in 2023. That’s a lot of money dedicated to a player who registered no higher than CB4 on the depth chart. But the Cowboys believed in Lewis. They saw how injuries in the secondary can sink an otherwise stellar defense and valued his ability to add depth across the ranks.

As fate would have it, a season-ending ACL injury to Trevon Diggs bumped DaRon Bland up to a boundary role opposite Stephon Gilmore, and vacated the nickel spot for Lewis to reclaim. As one could expect, Lewis did not exactly hit the ground running in his historic comeback bid. 2023 graded as his second-worst season as a pro as he struggled to regain form.

“I wouldn’t say I’m back to 100, but I understand how to manage my foot and what helps me perform better,” Lewis said in a January 5 interview with Nick Eatman. “Just getting my rehab in and keeping my diet and making sure I can perform at my best. I’m just in a better routine than I was earlier in the season. Just in a better place right now. I’m glad I’m able to get out there and contribute to the team.”

Announced as the Cowboys 2023 winner of the Ed Block Courage Award, Lewis is starting to see all of that hard work pay off. His Week 17 performance against the Lions and Week 18 performance against the Commanders marked his best games of the season. He showed intelligence in coverage, savvy in his playmaking and grit in his run defense. He’s playing at peak levels and he’s doing it with preparedness, discipline and toughness.

Playing in the slot is an almost impossible task in the NFL. Without the benefit of the sideline, nickel CBs are susceptible to a 180-degree release. Separation is almost unavoidable and oftentimes nickel CB is about keeping windows as narrow as possible and limiting damage more than it is about denying passes.

Lewis has shown throughout the season, nothing will come easy against him and while passes may be completed, he’s going to contest everything possible. His toughness and demeaner has been instrumental in the Cowboys ability to hold up against the run and his character embodies the spirit of a championship level defense.

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