How Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy can do Packers, Aaron Rodgers dirty in NFC playoff race

After Thursday night’s win in Nashville, the Dallas Cowboys secured 12 victories in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1994-95. Pretty impressive feat from the oft-criticized Mike McCarthy, don’t you think?

While McCarthy’s success in Dallas will ultimately be determined by the playoffs, there’s no denying he was a great hire by the franchise.

Most teams would be lucky to have McCarthy as their head coach. That’s not to say the Packers were wrong to let him go during the 2018 season — Matt LaFleur’s certainly been as good as advertised — but it’s pretty crazy that McCarthy’s success in Green Bay is defined by being “carried” by Aaron Rodgers.

Annoyingly enough, Rodgers and the Pack got the last laugh by overcoming a double-digit deficit to beat the Cowboys in overtime in Week 10.

Assuming Dallas and Green Bay (if they even make it) are both wild card teams, they won’t play again until the NFC Championship Game at the earliest; ruling out another potential revenge game for McCarthy and the Cowboys.

Having said that, McCarthy could stick it to Rodgers and Green Bay in Week 18 by simply resting their starters against the Commanders.

Here’s how Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy can do Packers, Aaron Rodgers dirty in NFC playoff race.

Wouldn’t this be glorious?

Left for dead after falling to 4-8, the Packers have won three in a row following their Christmas Day win in Miami and have catapulted back into the NFC playoff picture. This is the worst Packers team in recent memory, but no sane fan would want their favorite team to face a streaking Rodgers on Wild Card Weekend.

Incredibly, Green Bay’s path to the playoffs is simple. They must win out against Minnesota and Detroit. That’s easier said than done, but both games are at home, and Kirk Cousins and Jared Goff aren’t exactly cold-weather quarterbacks.

On top of running the table, the Packers need the Commanders to lose once, or the Giants to lose twice. Given the Giants play the Colts in Week 17, Green Bay is likely banking on Washington to lose one of its final two games. If they lose to Cleveland this weekend, a win over the Cowboys would send Rodgers and company packing.

Of course, Week 18 could mean everything to Dallas if Philadelphia loses to New Orleans. Assuming the Birds (and Packers) take care of business, though, Green Bay’s playoff hopes could hinge on the Cowboys beating Washington in DC. In that scenario, McCarthy would have zero incentive to play his stars.

Even if Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons (among others) suit up, the Cowboys could treat the finale like a preseason affair, meaning the starters will get one or two series before hitting the showers.

There’s so many ifs entangled here, but if everything falls into place, McCarthy could be positioned to do his old team and QB dirty.

Given how many times Rodgers has gotten the better of Dallas in his career, every Cowboys fan should be rooting for this scenario to come to fruition. It won’t be equivalent to beating the Packers, but it’d be pretty darn close.

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