Tag: Dallas Cowboys vs Green Bay packers

Cowboys’ Fassel on Week 10’s unsung special teams hero: ‘Like nothing I’ve seen before’

Luke Gifford tied his career-high in tackles and got his first fumble recovery on just 26 snaps Sunday, impressing the special teams guru. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Within the highly-focused world of special teams, John Fassel has certainly seen some stuff.

In 2012 with the Raiders, his entire three-man kicking battery (kicker, punter, long snapper) made the Pro Bowl. With the Rams, his specialists combined for seven Pro Bowls. Over his time with that franchise, his players won NFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors 15 times.

To be sure, in almost a quarter-century of coaching, Fassel’s been around plenty of exemplary special teams play.

But what Cowboys linebacker Luke Gifford did on Sunday in Green Bay left even the 48-year-old coordinator grasping for adjectives.

“Like nothing I’ve seen before,” Fassel told reporters on Monday. “Five legitimate tackles in one game, on special teams. I haven’t ever been a part of a game where one guy had that many tackles. And he had a fumble recovery, too. He was very productive; he actually missed one [tackle] on a punt at the end of the game. It could have been six.”

And Gifford, the undrafted Nebraska product who’s been with the club since 2019, did it while playing just 26 snaps, all on special teams. It’s the same stat line that safety Jayron Kearse delivered… only it took Kearse 57 snaps.

“Really proud of him,” Fassel said of Gifford. “He said this morning, ‘When it rains, it pours.'”

Gifford’s latest pop-up shower represents an absolute downpour of points on an in-house scoring system that Fassel uses to grade his special teams players.

“We’re doing the math on it right now, and it shot him up the chart,” he said. “It might be a 100-point game. For the season, the benchmark is 500 points, so you see 100 points in one game, that’s a lot.”

Fassel employs the scoring system as just one way to motivate his guys, who are often younger or less experienced players- like Gifford- just trying to do enough to earn a chance on offense or defense.

“Bonus points for tackles, fumble recoveries, forced fumbles,” Fassel explained. “Proud of him, because he’s been under the radar, playing really good football. Maybe the stat sheet doesn’t show it. Also his leadership. I think the best is yet to come for him.”

Gifford has gotten in on defense over his three-plus seasons, but very sparingly. He’s played with the regular defensive unit in just seven games; he logged double-digit snaps exactly once.

But on special teams, the third-string linebacker has been a mainstay. He’s participated in over half of the special teams snaps in 33 of the 38 games he’s dressed for as a Cowboy.

So Fassel’s leaderboard may be his best shot at getting noticed within a position group that includes phenom Micah Parsons, fan favorite Leighton Vander Esch, veteran Anthony Barr, and high-potential newcomers Jabril Cox and Damone Clark.

Fassel says he adopted the special teams point system from one of his early coaching stops.

“I got it back when I was an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens in 2006,” he recalled. “I worked for Frank Gansz Jr., who was a coordinator. And his dad, Frank Gansz Sr.- arguably the most legendary special teams coach in the National Football League- I kind of got it from him. We’ve obviously changed it over the course of all the years with how do you score points, how much this production is worth, a tackle’s worth this many points, a forced fumble’s worth this many points, a blocked punt’s worth this many points, just doing your job is worth this many points. So it has to do with two things: participation and production. And 500 points is the goal for the end of the season. Usually we have about six players, on average, that will hit 500 points per year.”

Being the year-end winner would earn Gifford plenty of recognition- plus an added bonus- from one of the top special teams minds in today’s game.

“A lot of love, and a lot of cool other something,” Fassel laughed. “Maybe a big old dinner at the house or something.”

But what would be even better for Gifford is if his ultra-rare special teams performance simply leads to more regular chances in the defensive huddle.

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Micah Parsons fears more big rushing days for Cowboys’ opponents: ‘It’s going to keep happening’

After giving up 200+ ground yards for the 2nd straight game, Parsons vented about some on the defense not stepping up. “It has to change.” | From @ToddBrock24f7

Micah Parsons was visibly dejected as he sat in the visitors locker room at Lambeau Field following Sunday’s overtime loss to the Packers.

The Cowboys linebacker was clearly upset about the loss in which the defense allowed Green Bay to score the final 17 points of the contest. It marked the 196th time in franchise history the Cowboys had held a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter… but the first time they had ever lost.

Parsons called the collapse “disgusting,” but he also seemed to bracing himself for something bigger and more ominous that he senses could be looming on the horizon in Dallas.

Packers backs Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon combined for over 200 yards on the ground in Week 10, and the Cowboys run defense faces a murderer’s row of running threats for the rest of the regular season. And that has the reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year concerned.

“We’ve just got to be accountable,” Parsons explained to reporters after the 31-28 overtime final. “We’ve got to hold our gaps. We’ve got to come downhill and stop it. It’s going to keep happening until we stop it. Period. We can rush as much as we want, but until we put this flame out, of this running the ball stuff, we’re never going to be as good as we need to be. Period. We’ve got to get better.”

Nine games in, the Cowboys are allowing 143.1 rushing yards per game. Only three teams are posting worse numbers in the category. And after now giving up over 200 rushing yards in back-to-back outings, backs like Minnesota’s Dalvin Cook, the Giants’ Saquon Barley, and Indianapolis’s Jonathan Taylor (the Cowboys’ next three opponents) have to be licking their chops.

The Dallas defense is loaded with highlight-reel stars and physical maulers, but Parsons implies that there’s something else going on within the unit’s larger group dynamic.

“I would take any of these guys any day of the week when it comes to physicality,” said Parsons. “But in terms of being accountable- staying and knowing you’re doing your job- that’s what it is. People think this is an ‘I’ game because certain people splash. This is a ‘we’ thing. It’s not just one person. If he doesn’t get the call, that’s on us. If he doesn’t stunt, whether he does, it’s on us. It’s a ‘we’ thing; we’ve got to depend on everybody to do their job. And if one person’s not doing their job, everything’s in shambles. It’s something that I’m very upset about, and it has to change.”

Exactly what will change before Sunday’s showdown with the 8-1 Vikings is unclear. But Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones has faith in the man who’ll be in charge of implementing it.

“We have complete confidence in Dan Quinn,” Jones told Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan on Monday. “I know that he’s going to continue to grind on it, and certainly we can be better. We have to be better. Obviously, that’s the way teams are going to attack us. How many times do you ever see an Aaron Rodgers game where he throws it 20 and they run it 40? Probably not very often. But we’re probably going to keep seeing that, and I know Dan, he’s the best of the best. I know he’ll keep going back to the drawing board with our players. We’ve got a great group of guys who’ve got a great mentality, a great play temperament.”

Parsons, the unit’s centerpiece, played 95% of the team’s defensive snaps on Sunday and finished the game tied for first among Cowboys in total tackles. He’s admittedly banged up, and had to have his ankle re-taped at one point in Green Bay. But he was still plenty effective, even if he didn’t have any of those splash plays he himself mentioned.

It can be argued that Parsons was made easier for the Packers to target because he spent the majority of Sunday at the same position. Rather than frequently moving him up to the defensive line, Quinn left him at linebacker for over 50 of his 61 Week 10 snaps. Covering for the inactive Anthony Barr may have been necessary, but it also seemed to, for all intents and purposes, neutralize Parsons’s best skill.

He rushed the passer just nine times.

“Obviously, when the other team breaks the huddle, they’re looking to find him. But one of the things Dan has been great at is moving him around,” Jones said. “But it was one of those games where they did a good job with him and, as you said, they didn’t throw it many times.

“You just didn’t feel that explosive play [from him], which seems unbelievable, because he seems to do it almost every game.”

Except he didn’t against Green Bay. And, as Parsons himself is so upset about, neither did anybody else on the Cowboys defense.

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Cowboys’ Dak Prescott: Route-running miscommunication caused 2 INTs vs Green Bay

Prescott said both Dalton Schultz and CeeDee Lamb committed the same error on his 2 interceptions; he and Lamb corrected it for an OT catch. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Dak Prescott spread the ball around at Lambeau Field, targeting eight different Cowboys receivers on 46 attempts in the team’s Week 10 overtime loss.

Trouble is, two of those throws ended up in the hands of a ninth man, Packers safety Rudy Ford. Both picks were quickly turned into Green Bay touchdowns, accounting for half of the Packers’ points scored in regulation.

Statistically speaking, it was one of Prescott’s worst games; the interceptions combined with his 58.7% completion rate and 78.6 passer rating to rank it among his 20 poorest performances as a pro. Prescott has now thrown four interceptions in four games in 2022, three in just the past two outings.

But in the case of Sunday’s Packers picks, the veteran quarterback chalked both of them up to the same problem.

“Miscommunication,” Prescott said in his postgame remarks. “First one was to [tight end Dalton] Schultz. He said he got knocked off his route, in a sense.”

Prescott said he believed Schultz was going to “cross face,” or cut in front of the safety, at the goal line. Instead of the Cowboys advancing to a 14-0 lead, Green Bay tied the score just four plays later.

“It’s a tighter window to get across,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy admitted, “and Dak has to throw that with anticipation.”

Prescott’s next pick came on the ensuing series. ESPN Stats & Info says it’s just the second time he’s thrown interceptions on consecutive drives in a game, dating back to his second NFL season.

Once again, Prescott said he thought the receiver- CeeDee Lamb, in this case- was going to cross face in front of the safety. Ford was there again, to nab his second pick of the day.

An issue with “route adjustment and timing” was McCarthy’s explanation.

“That was just miscommunication,” Prescott said, “similar to the one last week, honestly.”

He meant last game. The play was eerily similar to Prescott’s Week 8 interception against the Bears, when Lamb ducked just behind Bears safety Eddie Jackson on a ball thrown to a specific spot downfield.

After the Week 10 version, Prescott and Lamb were seen having a long talk on the Cowboys sideline about what had gone wrong two games in a row.

“Just always got to be on the same page,” Lamb told reporters after the game. “And when we’re not, it’s obviously dreadful. It looks bad on both parties. Just trying to make each other look good, complement each other, hope we come out with a win.”

The route-running error was a black mark on an otherwise superb effort from Lamb. His 15 targets and two scores tied career-best marks, while his 11 catches and 150 receiving yards set new personal highs.

Lamb says the two definitely got their rhythm back as Sunday’s game progressed.

“We got better throughout the game and as the game went, and you can see the confidence between us both. It was just building.”

The mini-huddle between passer and receiver largely paid off. Lamb caught six balls on nine targets for 110 yards and one of his touchdowns after that, and one of the receptions was an overtime grab where he successfully crossed face on the opposing safety, exactly as anticipated by Prescott.

But Lamb says that’s hardly a silver lining in the aftermath of a crushing loss.

“At the end of the day, we came here to win. We’re not here to ‘build a bond.’ I mean, yeah we are, but at the end of it all, we need to win.”

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‘No explanation:’ Frustrated Cowboys pointing fingers at officials (again) after loss

Critical penalties and a DPI non-call in overtime were huge, but several players have reverted to last year’s ploy of blaming refs. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The Cowboys blew a 14-point lead to let Aaron Rodgers and the Packers mount a comeback and eventually win their Week 10 game in overtime. It was a gut-wrenching way to end what was supposed to have been a storybook return to Green Bay for Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy and an exorcising of the demons that Rodgers and Lambeau Field represent for America’s Team.

But there’s something else that makes the 31-28 loss even harder to stomach for Cowboys Nation. It’s the fact that the officials, once again, are part of the story, with Cowboys players and even McCarthy himself listing them among the reasons why Dallas came up short on Sunday.

The Cowboys racked up nine accepted penalties, giving away 83 yards on the day. Only in Weeks 1 and 6 has the team drawn more more flags this year; those games represent their other two losses. Dallas, last season’s penalty leader, is in the top five for infractions once again in 2022 and even outranks eight teams who have played an entire extra contest.

McCarthy mentioned penalties at several points in his postgame press conference, even throwing back his head and raising his voice to a shout at one point in addressing the issue.

“Very, very, VERY frustrating,” McCarthy bellowed. “But you’ve got to overcome those things.”

The team, however, did not overcome. And afterward, many were quick to point to a handful of calls, especially in the overtime period, as critical turning points.

The first came on a 2nd-and-3, when rookie wide receiver Jalen Tolbert drew an offensive offside flag, a penalty that’s been called just two other times in 2022 and only once in all of 2021.

It’s rare because it’s inexcusable. An offensive player making sure he’s lined up behind the ball is as rudimentary as football gets, but a wideout even has a built-in safety net. Receivers at every level of the sport are taught to turn their head toward the sideline to literally get a thumbs-up approval from an official- either the line judge or the down judge, depending on which end of the line of scrimmage is closest- before the play begins.

Although the electronically-generated line that TV viewers see is unofficial, Tolbert was clearly lined up well across it. He did check with down judge Sarah Thomas and took a half-step back just before the snap. But it wasn’t nearly enough, earning a five-yard foul and setting the tone for the rest of the possession.

Tolbert told a different story, though, to his teammates and coach.

“On that one- the offside, I guess you could say- Jalen said the ref told him to get up and scoot up on the line,” quarterback Dak Prescott said from the podium. “So I don’t know; I guess you’re splitting hairs with whether the ref tells him to scoot up or not. I don’t know about that one.”

McCarthy was similarly perplexed by the moment.

“I got no explanation,” he said postgame. “You watch the game, the receivers check with the side all day long. I can only go on what J.T. told me coming off; he said he got permission and it was called for being in the neutral zone. I don’t understand the timing of that, to be honest with you. To sit there and have communication the whole game- I mean, you sit there and watch the receivers- everybody does it in pro football. You check every time. It’s almost part of your stance. Just disappointing. I’m sure we’ll look at the tape and obviously, he must have been in the neutral zone if she called it. But to have those penalties at that time, we obviously just couldn’t overcome it.”

The Cowboys did, though, make the lost yardage back on the next play to extend the drive. But three plays later, a holding call against left guard Connor McGovern brought back a 16-yard gain from Malik Davis that would have put Dallas on the Green Bay 26.

McGovern felt the play was clean. Prescott wasn’t necessarily surprised it was deemed otherwise, given the team’s ongoing penalty problem.

But he also wasn’t ready to blame that play for the loss.

“From my view, I thought it was clean,” Prescott explained, “but obviously, I’m not a ref; I’m just handing the ball off. But at the end of the day, to me, some of that’s just excuses. We’ve got to play beyond that. We’ve been getting penalties… it’s still on us.”

Prescott took it upon himself to get that yardage back, too, finding Dalton Schultz for a 16-yard pickup on the next play to bring up 3rd-and-3.

What happened next was actually a non-call that left the Cowboys more bewildered than any of the actual penalties that had been levied against them. Despite being draped all over Cowboys wideout CeeDee Lamb coming out of his route, Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander did not draw a flag on what certainly looked to be a clear example of defensive pass interference.

“Yes,” the receiver confirmed to media members when asked if it was DPI. “No question.”

A frustrated Lamb went on to say that he got no further feedback from officials on why the contact was allowed to stand.

“They don’t ever give us any explanation. They just call flags on us and not on the opposing team.”

That’s become an all-too familiar refrain for several Cowboys players, who were unusually vocal in 2021 after flag-filled losses to the Raiders and Cardinals and the botched ending to the playoff loss versus San Francisco. The claim is that NFL officials- either consciously or not- have some sort of bias against the Cowboys.

Running back Tony Pollard takes it as fact.

“Playing for the Cowboys, those type of calls we normally don’t get on our side,” Pollard offered. “It’s expected. We just have to be better.”

That last part is what right guard Zack Martin concentrated on, though, refusing to take the bait on making any kind of statement about referee Brad Allen’s crew.

“I’m not going to comment on any of the officials stuff,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to make a play at the end to seal the game out.”

They did not.

The Alexander non-call left Dallas with a 4th-and-3 from the Packers’ 35. Rather than attempt a 53-yard field goal into the wind, McCarthy opted to go for it. But he admitted that the number of penalties in the game’s key moments did factor into his decision.

“To be honest with you, I felt we needed to go for it. I called it on second down,” the coach shared, “especially the way the game was going: it was big play, penalty. Big play, penalty. Big play, penalty. Our thing was to keep playing.”

They didn’t get to keep playing for long. Prescott’s 4th-down pass fell incomplete. It took Rodgers just five plays to guide the Packers to the Cowboys’ 10-yard-line… helped, not surprisingly, by one last Dallas penalty.

The truth is, Cowboys were beaten even before Mason Crosby’s kick sailed through the uprights.

But just as they did in tough moments last season, a healthy number of the Cowboys players are pinning a good portion of the blame on the team wearing black and white stripes.

“Every one of us was fighting hard today,” said Lamb, “but I feel like your confidence kind of gets negated every time the refs get involved, and then putting ourselves in bad situations and trying to dig ourselves out of it.”

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What was learned about Cowboys in 31-28 OT loss to Packers

We learned these are the same old Dallas Cowboys after blowing a 14-point lead in their 31-28 overtime loss to the Packers. | From @BenGrimaldi

The Dallas Cowboys were poised to beat the Green Bay Packers and make Mike McCarthy’s return to his former home a triumphant one. Instead the Cowboys chose to go in another direction, blowing a 14-point fourth-quarter lead and losing to the Packers, 31-28, in an overtime thriller.

This was a game the Cowboys needed to win. It was against a reeling team who had lost five straight, and Dallas could’ve erased years of struggle playing Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The Cowboys had to know how much this game meant to Rodgers and that they would get the best out of the Packers.

If they knew, the Cowboys failed to complete the task. It’s difficult to fathom how the Cowboys lost the game while playing with double-digit lead late with the defense they have, but old habits are hard to break. Dallas proved once again, they aren’t yet good enough to compete for championships.

Here’s what we learned as the Cowboys blew a game to the Packers in Week 10.

Cowboys blow 4th-quarter lead, fall to Packers 31-28 in OT

Same story, different day. The Cowboys found a way to lose to Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.

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The Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers absolutely have a spell over the Dallas Cowboys. Leading by 14 points entering the fourth quarter, the Cowboys never scored again. That included a drive to start overtime that got into long field goal range. A missed DPI call on Jaire Alexander put the Cowboys in fourth down, but instead of risking giving Rodgers the ball at midfield, Dallas went for it, and failed.

The Packers drove down the field and a Mason Crosby field goal sent Mike McCarthy and his troops back south losers in the head coach’s return to the place he called home. Dallas comes out of their bye week with a defeat, falling to 6-3 on the season after a 31-28 loss.

Quarterback Dak Prescott had to recover after a horrid start, where he and his receivers weren’t on the same page. They did though, and looked to have worked out their issues until the fourth quarter came around. Prescott threw two interceptions but finished with three scores. He was matched by Rodgers, who completed three touchdowns to rookie WR Christian Watson despite the Packers’ running game gashing Dallas’ defense for 207 yards on the ground.

Dallas is now 2.5 games behind the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles, two games behind the 8-1 Minnesota Vikings and a game behind the New York Giants. The hunt for the No. 1 seed is all but over, with eight games remaining on the season. The Cowboys will get a chance to recover, on the road next week against the Vikings who have now won seven games in a row.

Come look at Cowboys Lamb’s shake’em move for 10th catch, 2nd TD

CeeDee Lamb has been at his best after miscues, and that trend has continued in Green Bay with his second touchdown of the night. | From @CDBurnett7

CeeDee Lamb came into 2022 under pressure as the No. 1 wide receiver in Dallas. Dating back to the Giants game in which Lamb had a drop on a certain big gain, he’s responded to those moments like a man possessed.

Against the Packers, Lamb ran a route over the middle without taking the safety into account and left quarterback Dak Prescott out to dry for an interception, then that respone kicked in. Since the mistake, Lamb has torched Green Bay and now he’s added a 35-yard touchdown to that total.

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Lamb eclipsed 100 yards on the day before the long score, which is the first 100-yard performance from a Cowboys receiver this season. If Prescott and Lamb can build off this rhythm, the potentiality another star receiver joining the group is tantalizing for Dallas.

Oh, don’t forget the swag.

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WATCH: Special teams takeaway leads to Pollard giving Cowboys lead

The Cowboys special teams unit came through in a big moment, sparking a short field that Dallas took advantage of for the lead. | From @CDBurnett7

The Packers special teams unit has been less than impressive in 2022 and their struggles entered the spotlight in the second half against Dallas. After Green Bay pinned the Cowboys deep and forced a three-and-out, Bryan Anger kicked a booming punt to Amari Rodgers.

Rodgers attempted a return and C.J. Goodwin came flying down for the coverage unit and delivered a strong hit that forced the ball out of Rodgers’ hands. Tight end Sean McKeon was right behind him and dove down on the ball to flip the momentum back in the favor of Dallas.

Following the takeaway, the Cowboys offense set up shop at the Green Bay 45-yard line and got started with a 30-yard pass to wide receiver CeeDee Lamb to immediately enter the red zone. Although the run game wasn’t dominant to that point, running back Tony Pollard broke through for a 13-yard score.

Pollard has been consistent and impressive in Ezekiel Elliott’s absence, and another timely touchdown for him gives Dallas a 21-14 lead in Lambeau Field. So far, Pollard has 14 carries for 72 yards and a touchdown against the Packers.

WATCH: Prescott and Schultz tie game with quick TD before half

The Cowboys finally stayed out of their own way to end the half, driving down the field in rapid fashion to tie the game. | From @CDBurnett7

The Cowboys offense beyond the long touchdown drive has been entirely discombobulated. Miscommunication between quarterback Dak Prescott and his receivers led to two interceptions that both resulted in touchdowns for the Packers offense that’s been struggling for over a month.

Down 14-7 with less than two minutes left in the first half, the offense responded with a 66-yard touchdown drive on the shoulders of Prescott. A combination of throws to wide receiver CeeDee Lamb to regain confidence and a timely 23-yard gain for wide receiver Michael Gallup set up Dallas at the Green Bay 5-yard line. A play later, Prescott evened the score with a touchdown to tight end Dalton Schultz.

When the Cowboys have stayed out of their own way, they’ve been a formidable opponent for the NFL as a whole but their own mistakes have kept them from controlling the game in Lambeau Field. Nonetheless, the late touchdown is even larger with the Packers set to start the second half with the ball because Dallas elected to receive on the coin toss.

Anthony Brown out for the game with a concussion

With little time left in the first half, Anthony Brown went to the locker room before swiftly being announced as out with a concussion. | From @CDBurnett7

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Halfway through the 2022 season, the Cowboys are already shorthanded at cornerback with Jourdan Lewis out for the year due to a foot injury. Rookie cornerback DaRon Bland jumped into his role and has impressed to keep the defense in one piece.

The group got thinner against the Packers with cornerback Anthony Brown heading to the locker room with time still left in the first half. Shortly after, Brown was announced as out for the rest of the game with a concussion.

In Brown’s absence, Kelvin Joseph will be the outside corner for Dallas across from Trevon Diggs. With Green Bay trying to find offensive rhythm, young players will have to step up for the Cowboys to keep Aaron Rodgers at bay.