The second day of Super Wild Card Weekend did not go as expected, at least for the Dallas Cowboys. Filled with Super Bowl aspirations, the Cowboys fell in the wild card round for the second time in three years as the Green Bay Packers ran them out of AT&T Stadium (and the game wasn’t even that close).
Jordan Love left his mark in the Packers victory, as Green Bay became the first No. 7 seed to win a playoff game in the expanded playoff format. The Cowboys have gone 13 consecutive postseasons without reaching the conference championship game, the longest such streak in NFL history.
The Lions also won their first playoff game since 1991, and just their second playoff game since 1957. Detroit will host two playoff games for the first time in franchise history.
With Sunday’s wild card games in the rearview, here’s what we learned from both contests and how that will carry over to the divisional round and next week.
Cowboys continue to stink in January
Every year the story remains the same in Dallas. The Cowboys blow out bad football teams and pad the point differential to look like one of the best teams in the NFL. This year was no different.
Against teams that finished with a losing record, the Cowboys were 8-1 with a point differential of +204. Against teams that finished with a winning record, the Cowboys were 4-4 with a point differential of -10. The Cowboys averaged 34.3 points against teams with losing records and 25.0 against teams with winning records. Dallas was the third team in NFL history with nine wins by 20-plus points in a season (1999 Rams, 2007 Patriots) and won 16 straight home games (six of which by 20-plus points).