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Carmen Vitali
NFC North Reporter
David Helman
Dallas Cowboys Insider
The football gods were generous in awarding us with these circumstances.
It’s noteworthy any time a marquee NFL team reaches the postseason. The Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers will always be interesting draws in their own right because of their storied histories and their rabid fanbases.
When you pit them against each other, it’s something else entirely.
It’s the Ice Bowl. It’s nine combined Super Bowls. It’s the Cowboys’ most recent NFC Championship Game win, all the way back in 1996. It’s two previous playoff classics this past decade — “Dez Caught It” and “third-and-20.”
This time around, it’s also a chance for Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy to face off against his former team; the one he led to a Super Bowl championship in his current home stadium back in 2011.
When the head coach has a street named after him outside the opponent’s stadium, you know the storylines are good. And that’s exactly the type of stuff McCarthy doesn’t want to focus on.
“The drama of it, I’m sure you guys will love, but I will not participate in it this year,” he said. “It’s playoff time. It doesn’t matter who we play, to be honest with you. … We need to play our best football.”
Fortunately for us, the actual matchups in this game (Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app) look just as juicy as the narratives.
FOX Sports Cowboys writer David Helman and NFC North writer Carmen Vitali break them all down.
David Helman: For starters, Carmen, I can’t help but think back to a month ago when it looked like the Packers had missed their chance at this type of opportunity. They lost an embarrassing Monday night game in New York, then turned around and got their doors blown off by Tampa Bay. Their playoff hopes appeared to be dead in the water.
Three weeks later, it’s not just that they’ve made the…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/cowboys-packers-preview-matchups-storylines-predictions-for-the-playoff-rivalry-game
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Publish date : 2024-01-12 17:26:22
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