Dallas Sent Packing

The NFC’s No. 2-seeded Dallas Cowboys came into Sunday’s wild-card game as heavy favorites against the No. 7-seeded Green Bay Packers, but they were never even in the game.

The Packers scored on their first possession, built a 20-point lead by halftime and never looked back on the way to a 48-32 victory.

Green Bay now heads west to face the top-seeded San Francisco 49ers next week in the divisional round.

After once again going 12-5 in the regular season and not advancing in the playoffs, the Cowboys head into the offseason facing questions about the futures of coach Mike McCarthy, quarterback Dak Prescott and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.

These aren’t the young Packers anymore. They’re Jordan Love’s Packers.

In his first playoff game, the first-year starting quarterback — surrounded by the youngest group of pass-catchers in the NFL — turned in a performance for the ages in Sunday’s win over the Cowboys.

As if Love’s impressive regular season — with 32 touchdown passes, second in the NFL to Prescott — wasn’t enough to excite an organization that’s trying to strike quarterback gold for the third straight time (Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre), then Sunday’s sheer dominance should do the trick.

Love finished 16-of-21 for 272 yards and three touchdowns with a 157.2 passer rating.

A season that looked full of promise — a third straight 12-5 finish, an NFC East title and a path to an NFC Championship Game with two games at AT&T Stadium, where the Cowboys went 8-0 in the regular season — ended with such a thud that only questions remain.

The Cowboys were dismantled by the Packers in every way possible.

This leads to questions about coach Mike McCarthy’s future, quarterback Dak Prescott’s long-term viability and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s potential departure. This is what happens when there is such a putrid performance that it was the largest home playoff loss in franchise history. The previous worst was a 38-14 loss to the Cleveland Browns in the 1969 Eastern Championship Game.

Since making their last appearance in a conference championship game in 1995, the Cowboys have eight one-and-done playoff appearances. They have done it as the No. 1 seed twice (2007, 2016) and now as the No. 2 seed.

The Packers scored on their opening drive of the game and never looked back, handling the Cowboys 48-32 Sunday at AT&T Stadium in the NFC Wild Card playoffs.

With the win, No. 7-seeded Green Bay will travel to San Francisco for the divisional round. The Packers became the first No. 7 seed to knock off a No. 2 seed since the NFL began this playoff format in 2020.

The Packers jumped all over the Cowboys, taking a 27-0 lead in the second quarter following S Darnell Savage’s 64-yard pick-six. Dallas scored 10 points on either side of halftime, but Green Bay’s offense simply couldn’t be stopped and the Packers kept building on their lead, getting it to 48-16 at one point in the fourth quarter.

QB Jordan Love fashioned a near-maximum 157.2 passer rating, completing 16-of-21 for 272 yards with three TDs. He was at the maximum 158.3 until throwing an incomplete pass with just over two minutes left when the offense was trying for one more first down to run out the clock.

The Packers’ 48 points tied the franchise record for a postseason game, matching the 2010 divisional win in Atlanta. It’s also the most points Dallas has ever surrendered in a postseason game.