Dallas Cowboys will host Green Bay Packers: Offensive Breakdown

Wild Card weekend is officially over, and the Dallas Cowboys Divisional Round opponent is now set. We take a look at how the teams stack up on offense.

Mark your calendars everyone, the Dallas Cowboys Divisional Round playoff game is set. They will host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, January 5th at 4:40 PM in AT&T Stadium. Are you ready? Let’s break it down.

Last Week

The Packers are coming off of a convincing home win that saw them beat the New York Giants, 38-13 at Lambeau Field. The Packers are red hot right now, and are assuredly a different team than the Cowboys faced in Week 6.

The Dallas Cowboys will be entering the game fresh off a first-round bye. They got to sit at home and watch while four of the NFC teams battled it out of the right to face them. Dallas will easily be the more rested team in this contest.

Advantage: Cowboys

Quarterback

This should be an interesting battle of signal callers. The game will be a battle of rookie sensation against proven veteran.

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is no stranger to the postseason, in fact, 2016 marks the eighth consecutive year he has guided his team to the playoffs. In those contests, he has a career record of 7-6, including a Super Bowl victory in 2010.

On top of that, Rodgers has been on fire as of late. He’s completed 60% of his passes for 300+ yards and 4 touchdowns in each of his last three games. Bottom line, he is an elite quarterback and not to be underestimated.

On the other hand, The Dallas Cowboys will be led by rookie gunslinger Dak Prescott. He’s only started 16 games in his NFL career, but he won 13 of them. Obviously, he has never played an NFL playoff game.

Dak’s past three games have been somewhat of a mixed bag. Against the Lions and the Buccaneers he completed 75% or more of his passes and notched 200 yards in each game. He added three touchdowns against the Lions as well. However, against the Giants, Prescott had the worst game of his professional career. He failed to complete 50% of his passes, threw for under 200 yards and had more touchdowns than interceptions.

I think Prescott will continue to rebound from the Giants game 4 weeks ago and turn in another solid outing. That said, it’s hard to bet against Aaron Rodgers in the playoffs.

Advantage: Packers

Offensive Weapons

Neither of these teams lacks top-tier playmakers on offense, so in this game, it will just be a matter of which are better. Or more likely, which are on the field.

The Packers have a top ten receiver in Jordy Nelson. Unfortunately, he appeared to suffer a rib injury in their Wild Card game against the Giants. He didn’t return to that game, and Packers’ coach Mike McCarthey expressed concern about his situation in his post-game presser.

Losing Nelson against a Cowboys secondary that is returning to full strength would be a huge blow to Green Bay’s offense.

On top of that, the Packers also watched their new running back, Ty Montgomery, go down with an apparent knee injury in the second half. There haven’t been any updates on his situation, but he may be unavailable next week as well.

Even without those two playmakers, the Packers still have wide receivers Davante Adams and Randall Cobb, as well as their new tight end Jared Cook. Each of those players is capable of doing damage to opposing teams, so the Cowboys will have their hands full.

When Sunday rolls around, the Dallas Cowboys will walk out perhaps one of the most deadly sets of offensive weapons in the NFL today. They feature the league’s rushing champion and All-Pro, Ezekiel Elliott, as well as an elite wide receiver in Dez Bryant.

To complement them, they’ll have receiver Terrance Williams, who is an absolute animal in the playoffs. Remember, he had three touchdowns in two games in the 2014 postseason. And of course, Prescott will have his always reliable, future Hall of Fame tight end, Jason Witten.

I think this one is pretty obvious.

Advantage: Dallas Cowboys

Next: Dallas Cowboys: Four Thoughts During Wildcard Weekend

Summary

The Packers probably will be playing the game with a better quarterback than Dallas, but the rest of the Cowboys offense is superior to their Green Bay counterparts. It will certainly be fun to watch these two offensive powerhouses duke it out for a ticket to the NFC Championship Game.

Be sure to check back later this week, as I’ll be breaking down the defensive matchups in this game. And as always, be sure to follow me on Twitter for more update Cowboys takes and football analysis, @JLongPass.

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