Fireworks In Arlington: Why the Green Bay Packers won
By Kenn Korb
Forcing FGs, Early & Late
While the offense is what really stood out in this contest, the defense definitely made some timely plays which were at least as important to the outcome.
The Cowboys easily could have come out and made this into a shootout right away, but the defense was able to hold off Dallas from making it into the endzone on their first drive.
Things began well for them, but a timely blitz by Micah Hyde started the eventual bogging down of the drive; following that first down sack Dallas was able to only pick up 14 of the necessary 16 yards to keep things moving, and the Cowboys had to settle for a 50 yard field goal attempt by Dan Bailey.
Even more importantly: how the defense did just enough to hold up to force another field goal right at the end of the game.
Though Green Bay had just picked up the lead again off their own long field goal, Dallas had an offense which had truly found their rhythm while scoring two straight touchdowns; another touchdown here likely seals the game in favor of Dallas, especially with so little time remaining. Dallas followed the decision to spike the ball (while having timeouts left) with a short throw to Cole Beasley, but then on third down Nick Perry was able to bat away Dak Prescott’s final pass to force the Cowboys to settle for a long field goal.
They would go on to make it and tie the game, but only needing a field goal to win allowed Green Bay to go on and do just that.
When giving up over 30 points to the opposition, a defense can’t really claim to have had a good performance, but coming through with key plays early and late allowed them to mitigate the damage done by the Dallas offense and give their offense just enough help to survive for a thrilling victory.