Defensive Punching Bags Help Packers Knock Out Cowboys

Jaire Alexander, Darnell Savage and Joe Barry – three of the faces of Green Bay’s underachieving defense – played key roles in the Packers’ playoff upset of the Cowboys.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Three of the Green Bay Packers’ defensive punching bags helped deliver the knockout in a stunning 48-32 wild-card upset over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

First, it was cornerback Jaire Alexander. By missing nine games due to injuries, did the two-time All-Pro have the desire to be great? By missing a game due to a suspension, did he even want to be a member of the Packers?

Alexander rolled his ankle at Wednesday’s practice, which somehow seemed fitting of his season, but rehabbed his way into the lineup and made perhaps the biggest play of the game.

With Green Bay leading 7-0 late in the first quarter, Dak Prescott tried to convert a third-and-5 to Brandin Cooks. Instead, Alexander made a sensational interception at Dallas’ 19. A few plays later, Aaron Jones was in the end zone to make it 14-0.

“It was amazing,” Alexander said.

Alexander said he spent about five hours a day in the training room and more time at home rehabbing the injury. He credited the team’s training staff for helping get him ready.

“In life there’s adversity and, for my ankle, I had some adversity. You’ve just got to come out on top,” Alexander said.

Before he could be a hero, he had to get through a pregame workout directed by position coach Greg Williams. Coach Matt LaFleur doesn’t usually watch those workouts, but he did on Sunday.

“Just to see his explosiveness, I was like, ‘All right, I think this guy’s going to be good,’” LaFleur said. “That was obviously a big-time play. We go down, we have a long drive, go down and score and he comes up with that big-time pick. For us to go up 14 right off the jump, that was pretty big.”

A 14-0 lead is big but the Cowboys were the NFL’s only undefeated team at home this season. Their 37.4 points per game at home was the highest figure since the 2014 Packers. Dak Prescott is a top MVP candidate and CeeDee Lamb led the NFL in catches, was second in yards and third in touchdowns.

So, 14 points wasn’t enough. The Packers would need more.

And they got it from an unexpected source.

Safety Darnell Savage was a first-round pick in 2019. After an All-Rookie season in 2019 and four interceptions in 2020, it looked like the Packers had one of the NFL’s great young safeties. Instead, his career went the wrong way with too many missed tackles and too few big plays.

Playing under the fifth-year option this year, Savage in 10 starts had zero interceptions and one pass defensed before he made the defense’s second game-changing play of Sunday.

With Green Bay up 20-0, Dallas was on the move before halftime. Score a touchdown on this drive and another with the opening possession after halftime, and the script would be flipped.

Instead, on second-and-2 from Green Bay’s 40, Prescott fired a slant to Lamb, who was open in front of Keisean Nixon. However, Savage saw it coming, intercepted Prescott and jogged most of the 64 yards for a touchdown that extended the lead to 27-0.

“Prove people wrong, it keeps playing fresh. It gives you a reason to wake up every morning,” Savage said.

The third punching bag was defensive coordinator Joe Barry. In huge late-season games, his defense was destroyed in a loss to Tampa Bay and a narrow win at Carolina. Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield had the game of his life. The Panthers scored 30 points against the Packers; they scored 15 points in the two games prior and zero points in the final two games.

While Green Bay’s defense buckled down for season-ending wins against the Vikings and Bears, those were against Minnesota’s backup quarterbacks and Chicago’s Justin Fields.

The challenge against Prescott, who led the NFL in touchdown passes, was infinitely higher. Especially at AT&T Stadium, where in eight games Prescott had 22 touchdowns vs. three interceptions and a league-high 120.0 passer rating.

But never mind the 32 points and 510 yards given up – the sixth-most yards allowed by a winning team in playoff history. It was 27-7 at halftime, with Prescott limited to a 47.2 passer rating and Lamb to 2-of-7 targets for 18 yards. A lot of Dallas’ final production was fluff, with Alexander aggravating the injury with 5 minutes to go in the third quarter and mostly backups playing on Dallas’ late touchdown drives.

“It just speaks to all the resiliency that we got on this team,” defensive tackle Kenny Clark said. “Just all the love we got for each other and how much we’re going to fight. We’re going to fight. We’ve been through all the ups and downs. Now, we’re hitting it at the right time.”

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