Packers 2017 schedule release: Game-by-game predictions

Week 5: @ Dallas Cowboys

With the way these two teams are built, the two games we got from them last year showed us the perfect encapsulations of what happens when the game goes completely in their favor.

In the Dallas win, the Cowboys dominated on the ground and kept a discombobulated Packers offense from seeing the field often enough to work into a rhythm. Even with turnovers from Dak Prescott, throughout the course of the game it completely felt like an inevitable Cowboys victory.

Switch to the playoff matchup and it was the exact opposite. Green Bay lit up the scoreboard early, converting their first three drives into touchdowns and cementing the flow of the game as a high-flying affair. Dallas was so good last year that they managed a comeback anyway, but with enough being done early to have things being close rather than coming from multiple scores down, the situation was prime for Rodgers to make what became an epic playoff drive for the win.

I’m not gonna lie: of those two situations, the first is the most likely to happen in most cases. A team that can efficiently grind the ball down the field in big chunks can not only put up scores effectively, but they keep their defense fresh and make every single drive count exponentially more for their opposition.

If there is a team capable of beating that plan though, it is Green Bay. We have that evidence already with that playoff win, but even before it I was championing the idea. Do exactly what they did offensively and hope the slow churning offense on the other end has a hiccup.

A team like Dallas may rely on long drives and are good at completing them, but the longer a drive is, the more likely a mistake happens to cut it short. Maybe it ends because they get stopped on a third-and-short run; maybe they get stuffed a couple times and then see a third-and-long pass go incomplete.

We saw Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott lead them to an incredible amount of successes in those scenarios last year, but if even a fraction of their positive luck in those facets starts going against them, it can force them to come from behind. Instead of imposing their will, all of a sudden they are chasing the other team’s success.

With those two, Dez Bryant out wide, and that terrorizing offensive line, it will probably not be an easy task for any team in the foreseeable future to have a sizeable victory over them without injuries striking.

But as long as Green Bay has Aaron Rodgers, the Packers will be one of the few teams built to take on Dallas. Toss another sweet win in their building onto the tally.

Packers 31, Cowboys 27 (4-1)