PHOTO: Packer website
🏈 SPORTS: BEHIND LOVE ❤️, JONES, DOUBS, 2 PICKS, & LAFLEUR’S COACHING, “UNDERDOG” PACK MAUL COWBOYS, 48-32, HEAD TO ROUND 2 IN SF!
By Paul Wickham Schmidt
Special to Courtside Sports
Jan. 14, 2024
It’s late, so just some of the highlights:
- QB Jordan Love 16-21-272-3-0-157.2 (158.3 is the highest possible) — one of the top five performances in playoff history;
- RB Aaron Jones 21-11-3 — tied Packer one-game playoff rushing TD record, fourth straight game 100+ rushing yards;
- WR Romeo Doubs 6-151-1;
- Safety Darnell Savage, pick 6 (64 yards);
- CB Jaire Alexander, pick;
- Offensive line, 0 sacks;
- Youngest team ever to win a playoff game;
- First #7 seed to win a playoff game (since playoffs expanded in 2020);
- Tied highest Packer point total in playoff game;
- Most points surrendered by Dallas in playoff game;
- Ended 16 game Dallas home winning streak;
- Packers four straight wins.
The game was not as close as the score and stats indicate. The Packers won the coin toss, drove 75 yards for a touchdown (Jones, 3 yard run), jumped to a 27-0 lead, and never looked back. After a 3-yard TD pass from Love to Romeo Doubs, the Pack led 48-16 with 10:41 left in the fourth quarter. The rest of the game was “garbage time” with the Cowboys racking up bogus statistics, some against Packer reserves.
One somewhat unfortunate consequence was that after the Cowboys scored two basically meaningless TDs with 2 point conversions, Coach Matt LaFleur was forced to send Love and the first unit back for a series. When Tucker Kraft dropped Love’s third down pass, his QB rating fell from perfect 158.3 to 157.2. That and a missed extra point by Anders Carlson were about the only things that went wrong for the Pack at AT&T Stadium.
Next week, Green Bay travels to San Francisco to face the top-seeded 49ers. Once again, they will be heavy underdogs. After what happened in Dallas today, the Niners are unlikely to take the upstarts from Green Bay lightly. So, it will take another extraordinary effort from Love and his young colleagues to reach the NFC Championship game!