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2014-2015 Postseason:
Off Track Against
The Pack And How To Get Back
- January 12,
2015
At 11:47 PM CST
By Eric M. Scharf
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- The last time the Dallas Cowboys
competed in multiple playoff contests during the same postseason was
in 2009. For fans of most NFL teams – lacking in past playoff glory
– such a gap between tournaments would have been more than fine with little to no postseason history.
For "The Tortured Cowboys Fan" and "Cowboys Nation" – with still sensitive playoff memories of
eradicating the Philadelphia Eagles but being violently beaten by the
Minnesota Vikings – a
‘mere’ six-year span, however, is still considered a MAJOR
irritation and NOT part of the plan.
“America’s Team” – however – was back in the postseason saddle and prepared
(for the second week in a row) to give it a go with
another win-or-go-home battle.
Fresh off defeating the Detroit Lions in their NFC Wildcard game at
home, the Cowboys were headed to Lambeau Field – DETERMINED to
get the Green Bay Packers to yield. If the Cowboys could succeed on
the frozen tundra, they could further banish their postseason
penumbra, and get themselves that much closer to a familiar
trophy of chrome.
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- Aaron Rodgers was suffering from a(n un)timely torn calf muscle.
News out of Green Bay had the Packers’ star quarterback potentially
struggling to put up any kind of game day tussle. This was
manageable music to the ears of “Marinelli’s Men” who – in the
absence of depth and talent, again and again, seemed to get by
on sheer grit and hustle.
It was INCONCEIVABLE they could get this far without Sean Lee, their
biggest defensive star. Upon losing him to a friendly fire training
camp injury to his ACL, the season was supposed to have gone
completely to hell. Marinelli’s Men – instead – have converted their
mission into staring down the affliction of crippling attrition and
putting it (kicking and screaming) to bed.
Perhaps Rodgers’ injury would slow him down, just enough for
the Dallas Cowboys to play keep-away on offense by avoiding mistakes
that burden their defense with overexposure nonsense, and escape
with a precious playoff victory from Titletown.
No matter how much campaign marketers and broadcast advertisers
attempted to talk this game up as “Ice Bowl II,” the weather
was not quite cold enough to freeze out the possibility of swinging
from marvelous momentum to maddening mental mildew.
That inference points to the difference between reaching the next
round of the postseason dance, and making enough miscues to
blow your well-earned, hard-fought, and increasingly rare chance.
The following images appropriately capture those moments in which
the Cowboys were nearly able to succeed in getting the Packers
to succumb to their Cinderella story rapture. The unrecoverable
error – from legitimate mistake to replay official terror –
ultimately forced Dallas to concede.
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Will They Or Won’t They?
Before the game, Cowboys Nation might have imagined Jason Garrett’s
final advice to his players being something along the lines of: “You
each have one job to do and – to avoid a premature playoff exit –
you simply must come through.”
One or more mistakes is all it takes to go from contenders to
being potentially labeled as one-hit wonders or outright fakes.
The Cowboys’ playoff game against Green Bay delivered as expected in
many an anxiety-filled way. Cowboys Nation – most but not entirely
all who painfully watched their team fall – will say the refs
blatantly thieved, while Packers fans may insist the Cowboys
merely overachieved and were bound to be cleaved.
Which is it? Excited, hopeful, and impatient fans will have to wait
until next season to figure it.
Dallas may have gotten off track against the Pack, but they have an
entire offseason, training camp, and preseason to establish the
necessary corrections (from draft day to a better way to play) to
get right back.
Dallas – in the meantime – has more immediate and bigger fish to fry
before they can reload with enough personnel still in their prime to
give it another try.
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Will Jerry Jones be willing to dangle enough of a golden carrot in
front of “favorite son” Jason Garrett, or will other suitors –
like from years before – coming knocking on his door to offering a
better bid for the promising experience that now resides under his
lid?
Will America’s Team be able to convince both Scott Linehan and (the
surely bitter) Bill Callahan to remain as part of their future plan?
Will Rod Marinelli want to test free agency for another place to
brew his brand of Tampa 2?
Will the Dallas Cowboys be able to keep their critical core together
and build on this precious experience, or will they succumb to
inflexible demands and cap space interference?
Will the immediate sting of
opportunity lost be an offseason smother . . . or will the Cowboys
seize on their potential and be able to recover?
We shall see. We always do.
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