Packers 16, Dallas 27

by Brandon on Sep 21, 2008 11:20 PM CDT in News

The story of this game was the offense's struggles.

The defense wasn't perfect, but they played better than I expected. Dallas overpowered them at times at the line of scrimmage, RB Marion Barber had a big day, RB Felix Jones was left wide open on his big 50 yard TD run, someone named WR Miles Austin looked unstoppable, and TE Jason Witten owned them as a blocker and a clutch receiver on 3rd down (he does that to a lot of teams). But WR Terrell Owens did nothing and they forced QB Tony Romo into some really really bad decisions with passes into coverage, fumbles, and two intentional grounding penalties. Their stats would have looked a lot better if the Packers offense could have stayed on the field. They played hard and physical.

The offense's stats look good. QB Aaron Rodgers had almost 300 yards passing and a rushing TD. 334 yards of total offense, but they were under 200 yards when the score was 27-9. Two late drives created 117 yards, nearly a third of the yards in garbage time. Rodgers played well, he fumbled a snap but recovered it, and threw no INTs. The offensive line did a good job creating some running lanes, and protecting Rodgers. Bottom line; the receivers just didn't get open and/or Rodgers didn't see them. I have no idea whether Mike McCarthy's game plan was just too predictible or whether Dallas' CBs are much better than the Packers WRs.

Take away an 11 play drive to start the 3rd quarter, the offense had the following drives from the end of the 1st quarter until 6 minutes to go in the game:

Plays	Yards
3	5
3	7
3	-10
5	22
3	0

The 12 yards of offense in the 2nd quarter was bad. Sometimes a team can vanish on offense for that long and pull out a win with one or two scoring drives, but not against an offense like Dallas. It's hard to get upset about one loss against argubly the toughest team on the schedule. Like I read in the open thread comments, it didn't help Dallas in the playoffs that they had beaten the NY Giants twice in the regular season. It didn't help the Packers in the playoffs that they smoked the Giants in the regular season either. Just secure winning the division and get into the playoffs. The lesson that Mike McCarthy and the Packers have to learn is how did Dallas shut them down during that awful six drive sequence.

Poll

How Big Was The Loss To Dallas?

Devastating, Wake Me In 2009

27 votes

It Hurts, A Lot Of Room For Improvement

82 votes

I'm Over It, Bring On The Bucs!

53 votes

162 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 9 comments

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Comments

it was a strange game...

you guy’s have a good team…..good luck on the rest of the year……

I don't need a compass to know which way the wind shines....

by hashishkabob on Sep 21, 2008 11:53 PM CDT 0 recs

Dallas DB's had a

about 4 dropped pics, but it was due to Rodgers trying to make something happen because they were behind.

Ignore the Mainstream Media, EMBRACE THE HATE!!!!

by cowboy78 on Sep 22, 2008 12:33 AM CDT 0 recs

Packers played great pass defense

you guys have tremendous DBs who can cover, to limit T.O. to 2 catches is quite impressive and only Witten got open consistently. Romo through most of the game had no where to throw, our receivers just couldn’t get open.

Thank Godf Austin stepped up or the game would have been much closer. Great game and good luck the rest of the way.

In Romo we Trust

by Terry on Sep 22, 2008 7:59 AM CDT 0 recs

You the same..

Our pass defense was pretty good last night except for 2 plays and those equalled one TD and set up another. And really if the Packers could have put just turned one of those FG’s into a TD it could have been a much different game. Hats off to the Cowboys D for buckling down when they had to. On that note good game and good luck, you have one helluva team there.

Your 2008 NL Central Champs: Chicago Cubs!!! Go Cubs Go

by mkcubs21 on Sep 22, 2008 11:04 AM CDT up 0 recs

Ditto your observations

INcredibly, for much of the second half, the Packers played with just ONE starter in the secondary….We had backup Rouse, Peprah and Tramon Williams…instead of Bigby, Collins and Al Harris. ANd of course, that’s when the two big pass completions occurred, which broke open the game.

It was 13 to 9 midways through the 3rd quarter before the big plays began…but Collins was in there for the first big completion as I recall.

Actually I was really impressed with the closing speed of the Dallas linebackers and secondary! your secondary is potentially much improved from last year.

by PackFaninFL on Sep 22, 2008 11:52 AM CDT up 0 recs

I think Collins got hurt on that first big pass to Miles Austin (who?). They definitely played better than we did from the start to finish. If we had been able to get in the end zone instead of settling for 3 the game could have turned out a lot differently. Thats what makes me feel ok about this game. We had some chances that we failed to convert. Convert those and its a much closer game. Dallas beat us but they didn’t blow us out. We had chances.

Can't pitch Gagne in rain. He’s like the B-2 bomber of baseball.--TheJay

by verno329 on Sep 22, 2008 2:49 PM CDT up 0 recs

Same story as last year

This game looked a lot like last year’s game – Dallas once again dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. They were, for the most part, able to run the ball at will and Aaron Rodgers was under pressure all night. I thought we got away from the running game a little too early. It seems to me that Brandon Jackson has been consistently more productive than Ryan Grant and should be the starting tailback until Grant’s hamstring is completely healthy.

The Packers had chances early in the game to make this one competitive but you’re just not going to beat the Cowboys by kicking field goals. Their offense is too explosive.

The defensive game plan was obviously designed to take TO out of the game – we won’t know how it would have worked out if Al Harris had been able to play the whole game. Would he have been covering Austin on those two deep balls?

Either way – no excuses, Dallas beat us, but the game that will count will be the one in January (if it happens). We’re still alone in first place in our division and need to regroup and take care of business in a winnable game at Tampa Bay.

by Packschmid on Sep 22, 2008 8:45 AM CDT 0 recs

I agree with all of this

I was afraid that we would focus too much on their receivers on defense and try too much to exploit there corners on offense.

Football is still about running the ball and stopping the run. I know we got by without being able to run last year for a while, and I know that Minnesota runs and stops the run without dominating the league.

All in all, I’m not that upset about the game. The offense can improve. The last two years under McCarthy, the offense has started slowly (especially the running game), and has improved as the season went on. The defense was not too bad minus a few really big plays. Maybe having Harris and Bigby back will make a difference next time.

Rodgers was OK considering the pressure he was under. Maybe some more draws and screens to offset that aggressive pass rush.

Lost in this is that the Packers are still a very young team, and there will be bumps along the way. McCarthy was righ tin saying " We just aren’t as good as them yet". Hopefully they will be soon.

by grant76 on Sep 22, 2008 9:56 AM CDT 0 recs

Wasn't surpised...

I was holding out hope that the Packers would pull it off, but the Cowboys are the better team right now.

I was really unimpressed with our running game. Without some balance it was going to be tough passing up the middle on the Cowboys.’

I didn’t think the defense played all that bad considering the offense left them out to hang for quite awhile. Rodgers played decent for the amount of pressure he was under.

The one thing that really concerns me is the interior offensive line. Rodgers is pretty good at avoiding the edge rush but we had real problems with some penetration up the middle. I am just not sold on Colledge being all that good of a guard.

Bright side…remember how the Pack stomped the Giants early last year and got beat in the playoffs!

by Bernie's Mustache Wax on Sep 22, 2008 10:56 AM CDT 0 recs