Packers Time Capsule: 2019 Packers-Cowboys matchup another Dallas classic

The Packers are fundamentally incapable of playing a boring game in Dallas.

Ever since the Cowboys cut the ribbon on Jerry World, the Packers have honored one of the world’s glitziest, gaudiest stadiums with appropriately weird and wild games.

The 2010 Super Bowl is probably the most normal of the games they’ve played in the palatial stadium, but a Super Bowl is anything but a run-of-the-mill contest, and winning one will make any stadium memorable.

The next time they visited Dallas, Matt Flynn and Eddie Lacy led a comeback for the ages, rallying from a 26-3 halftime deficit to take down the Cowboys.

Next time, we saw Jared Cook tap his toes on the sideline to set up a Mason Crosby game winner in the 2016 playoffs, and the next trip featured a classic game-winning drive from Aaron Rodgers, the last good moment of the 2017 season.

The Packers’ 2019 trip to Dallas wasn’t quite as crazy as their previous games there, but it was more than worthy of the legacy of fun games in the Cowboys’ house. I mean, how often does a team give up more than 500 yards and still win handily?

The Packers had just endured their first loss under Matt LaFleur and were underdogs for their Week 5 matchup with Dallas, but you wouldn’t have guessed that from the way the Packers opened the game. Quite frankly, they ran away with it, scoring on five of their first eight possessions en route to a 31-3 lead.

They piled up that lead thanks to big plays from their biggest playmakers on both sides of the ball.

Aaron Jones had one of the best games of his career. His 26 touches generated 182 total yards, and he scored four rushing touchdowns. He did it despite the Packers losing Corey Linsley to a concussion midway through the game. Lucas Patrick took over, and time at center was a bit of an adventure — at least one of his shotgun snaps was so off target, it was initially thought to be a direct snap to Jones.

The Packers’ defense, meanwhile, bent and bent and bent but didn’t break until it was too late to matter. Up front, the Packers’ dynamic edge rushing duo of Za’Darius and Preston Smith combined for three sacks, and the Packers’ secondary took care of the rest.

Jaire Alexander collected an interception that caromed off the hands of Amari Cooper, Chandon Sullivan made a nifty leaping grab on another pick, and Kevin King secured another. In fact, it was probably King’s best statistical performance as a member of the Packers. He recorded six solo tackles, defended two passes, caught an interception, and forced a fumble. When Kevin King takes over, you know things are going well.

The Cowboys did rally late as Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup scored on long touchdown passes. But the rally was immaterial — the Cowboys’ last, best shot at making it a game ended with a missed field goal with a little under 2 minutes left, and that would only have brought them to within seven points. All told, it was another worthwhile entry into an increasingly long history of interesting games in Dallas. Maybe it’s not too late to get this game relocated.