For Holmgren-Favre Packers, Cowboys Were Stepping Stone to Super Bowl

Thirty years ago, the young and talented Packers got their first taste of big-time playoff football when they lost at Dallas. In 2023, the young and talented Packers will play the Cowboys on Sunday.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Jordan Love’s first playoff challenge will take place on Sunday when he leads the up-and-coming Green Bay Packers into a wild-card matchup at the powerhouse Dallas Cowboys.

It’s fitting, because the Cowboys were the team in the way of Brett Favre, Mike Holmgren and the rest of the up-and-coming Packers three decades earlier.

Just like the 2023 Packers, the 1993 Packers were a team on the rise led by a hot-shot young quarterback. The parallels go beyond the young quarterback. The 2022 Packers had a chance to make the playoffs but lost at home in the final game against Detroit. The 1992 Packers had a chance to make the playoffs but lost their final game at Minnesota.

In 1993, the Packers reached the postseason for just the second time in the past two decades. After beating the Lions on Favre’s memorable touchdown pass to Sterling Sharpe in the final moments, the defending Super Bowl champion Cowboys stood in the way in a divisional-round game at Texas Stadium.

The Packers lost 27-17.

In 1994, the Packers were back in the playoffs. After dispatching the Lions in the wild-card round again, they faced a divisional-round rematch against the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Cowboys at Texas Stadium.

The Packers lost 35-9.

“I remember those games,” Holmgren told Packer Central. “We were up and coming and still learning stuff; Brett, in particular. Then we would go in there and they were established and they were really good. I tried everything under the sun but they were just better than we were. We were getting better and we were learning.”

After three consecutive 9-7 seasons, the 1995 Packers went 11-5 as Favre won his first MVP. After beating Atlanta at home and stunning the defending Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers on the road, the Packers returned to Texas Stadium to face the Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game.

Favre’s third touchdown pass of the day gave the Packers a 27-24 lead going into the fourth quarter. But the Cowboys dominated the final period and won 38-27.

Packers QB Brett Favre at the Cowboys in the 1993 playoffs / Photo by USA Today Sports Images

“The turning point for us was the win in San Francisco,” Holmgren said. “We went in there and they were really good, too, and we were able to pull off an upset and win. I thought at that point we had matured. We were still not ready to beat Dallas in Dallas, but we were on our way. I thought, ‘OK, now we’re in the tournament and we can get this thing done.’”

Thus, while disappointed after falling a step short of the Super Bowl, Holmgren delivered a memorable message on the flight back home to Green Bay.

“On that plane going back,” Hall of Fame safety LeRoy Butler told Packer Central, “Holmgren was telling people, ‘Next year, we’re going to win it.’ Now, this is coming from Dallas. We’re on the plane and he looked me right in the eye – he’s walking down the aisle saying, ‘Hey, guys, good game’ – and he had this big smile on his face. I said, ‘Coach, you good?’ He said, ‘Next year, we’re going to win it. Yeah, we’re going to win it.’”

“I’m like, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Next year, we’re going to win it.’ So, he told that to people. Going back to his seat, ‘You believe me, don’t you?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ He was right.”

The 1996 Packers rolled through San Francisco and Carolina at home before beating the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI.

Holmgren’s message was an important piece of the puzzle.

“Holmgren was one of the best therapists I’ve ever been around, because he won’t let the negative stuff get in your head,” Butler said. “He probably was thinking, ‘We had these guys on the ropes. That’s probably demoralized my team. Let me get up and remind them that, in 12 months, we’re going to the Super Bowl.’

“Had he not told us that, I don’t know if most guys [would have thought that]. You know, maybe that was our peak. San Francisco and Dallas, they were destroying people. So, how are we going to crowbar our way into it? And he convinced us that we’ve got a good team.”

Had the Super Bowl championship not signaled the passing of the torch in the NFC, the Packers finally got to host the Cowboys in 1997. Green Bay rolled to a 45-17 victory. The Packers were on their way to another Super Bowl; the Cowboys wound up losing their final five games to finish 6-10.

“San Francisco and Dallas, they were the teams to beat in that stretch,” Holmgren said. “And I said, we will get there someday. We will get there. And I think when we finally got them up there, the players that had been there in the games in Dallas, I think they felt to the man that ‘OK, now the stuff he’s been saying, now we’re there.’ That added to the confidence level of the players.”

Holmgren and Butler both mentioned the lessons learned in the three playoff losses at Dallas were vital in taking that championship next step.

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What were those lessons?

“Just going on the road and handling a hostile environment,” Holmgren said. “We had a really good, strong record at home but, on the road, we had to take care of our business and learn how to do that. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how good you are if you make mistakes.

“As a young team going from Point A of 4-12 [in 1991 under Lindy Infante] to getting in the playoffs, we kind of developed that way. We took a step each year until we finally got to the Super Bowl. Part of that was Brett maturing and making smart plays and not doing crazy stuff.”

Butler’s lessons resonate with this team.

“When you see that the guy next to you, I can always count on him,” Butler said. “That’s it. If I looked over there and saw No. 4 [Favre] getting dressed, I got hyped. We got a chance today. If I looked over there and saw No. 10 [Love] getting dressed, oh, boy. That’s how you learn to win. You’ve got to trust the guy next to you.

“Football is the ultimate team sport. It’s the only game where you can have a terrible game, but your brother can have a fantastic game. You win the game, and they don’t even know you played bad because you won the game. And that’s what Holmgren used to tell us. We’ve got to be together. And that’s why [the playoff-clinching win vs. Chicago] was probably one of the most rewarding wins that Matt LaFleur has had here. They don’t have any individuals. They got a team.”

For Butler, the Packers’ season-ending loss to Detroit last season gave him the same vibes as the loss at Dallas in the 1995 NFC Championship Game.

“We had a chance. And then the next year, we took off. The next year for these guys, they did something last year’s team couldn’t do with a Hall of Fame quarterback. You’ve got a bunch of babies, but they graduated. With no Pro Bowlers. They don’t know what they don’t know. When they read your article, it’s going to open their eyes. ‘I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that.’ Sometimes, not knowing what’s around the corner can benefit you because you’re not scared of it.”

Maybe the 25-year-old Love will lead the Packers to an upset victory in his playoff debut on Sunday. Or maybe this will be the first step, just as it was for a 24-year-old Favre three decades earlier, and the lessons learned on Sunday will pave the way for the franchise’s next Super Bowl victory.

“I think we would have eventually gotten there, but those are tough lessons that were learned early on for that team,” Holmgren said. “I’m sorry it had to go that way. No one would have been happier. ‘OK, lose one. OK, lose two, lose three; oh, this is hard. But, absolutely, it helped us. There were scars. The wounds healed but we still had the scars. I think it helped us but it was a tough go. I wouldn’t say that’s the way to go but it did help us.”

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