Packers-Cowboys Playoffs: Comparing Dak Prescott to Jordan Love

Football games – especially playoff games – are won by quarterbacks. On Sunday at Dallas, it’ll be the Packers’ Jordan Love vs. the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott led the NFL with 36 touchdown passes. Green Bay Packers QB Jordan Love was second with 32.

Otherwise, the quarterback matchup for Sunday’s NFC wild-card game looks like a big mismatch.

Prescott almost certainly will be in the top three of the NFL MVP race after leading the Cowboys to an NFC East championship. Behind his second-ranked passer rating, the Cowboys led the NFL in scoring.

Love, in his first season as Green Bay’s starter, led the Packers to a 9-8 record, getting into the playoffs as much because of the mediocre middle of the NFC as anything else. Love finished 11th in passer rating and 21st in completion percentage as Green Bay wound up 12th in scoring.

However, the numbers don’t tell the whole story. So, for the ultimate lemons-to-lugnuts comparison, here’s a side-by-side look of where Prescott finished in the full-season rankings and where Love ranked over the final eight games.

Passer rating: Prescott, 2nd (105.9). Love, 2nd (112.7).

Completion percentage: Prescott, 2nd (69.5). Love, 3rd (70.3).

Passing yards: Prescott, 3rd (4,515). Love, 1st (2,150).

Yards per attempt: Prescott, 6th (7.65). Love, 9th (7.71).

Touchdowns: Prescott, 1st (36). Love, 2nd (18).

Interceptions: Prescott, 16th (nine). Love, 1st (one).

Starting with the Week 10 upset of the Chargers, the numbers show Love being as good as any quarterback in the NFL. In fact, if you take those final eight games and put them over the course of a full 17-game season, Love would have ranked:

- Second with a 112.7 passer rating (behind Brock Purdy’s 113.0).

- Second with a 70.3 completion percentage (behind Jake Browning’s 70.4).

- Third with 4,569 passing yards (Tua Tagovailoa was first with 4,624).

- Sixth with 7.71 yards per attempt (Purdy was first with an all-time great 9.64).

- First with 38 touchdown passes (Prescott led with 36).

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- First with two interceptions (no quarterback had less than four). His 0.36 interception percentage would have been the second-best in NFL history behind Aaron Rodgers’ 0.34 in 2018.

In coach Matt LaFleur’s mind, there’s not “many questions left” for Love to prove as the heir to Rodgers’ four-time MVP throne.

“I’m just super-happy for him,” LaFleur said. “I know it’s not always easy when you’re a first-round pick and you have to sit there and watch and wait your turn. That’s tough. That’s tough on a lot of guys.

“But he approached it the right way, he’s been a great teammate, he’s been super-supportive in whatever role he’s taken on and he’s excelled in whatever role he’s taken on. It’s really rewarding to see the progress he’s made over the course of these few years.”

Prescott’s made abundant progress, too. After throwing for 4,449 yards and 37 touchdowns in 2021, he led the NFL with 15 interceptions last year even while missing five games due to injury.

“Everybody understands the purpose of a play, why it’s being called, what’s expected, and then the execution part and what everybody has to do and that they’re one-eleventh their job,” Prescott said after a four-touchdown finale against Washington. “For me, it’s just about being consistent, not believing anything other than what I believe and believing in myself and the people that have supported me all the way throughout, from leading the league and interceptions and missing five games to being in this point.

“I talked about it last year. A lot of it’s the confidence, the work that I put into it to have the confidence and throw into tight windows. I think if you just go over and look at it, a lot of it is guys expecting it, understanding that that ball is coming and them going and making plays.”

While Love has relied on a diverse group of young playmakers all season, Prescott has leaned heavily on receiver CeeDee Lamb, led the NFL with 135 receptions, was second with 1,749 yards and was third with 12 touchdowns. That’s more catches and yards than Green Bay’s top two combined.

“You talk about quarterback-receiver relationships – and I’ve been blessed to have been around some great quarterback-receiver duos, trios in the past, and we have that here,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “Not only what that does for Dak and CeeDee, but it’s infectious. It permeates through the whole perimeter.

“You see the connection he has now with [receiver] Brandin Cooks, and [tight end Jake] Ferguson has stepped up to the forefront. You just want to keep building that growth because as we’re standing here right now, there’s going to be individuals making plays in a game against Green Bay that may not have made some plays today.”

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