LAS VEGAS – Jordan Love was trying to avoid being impolite. But his appearance on Micah Parsons’ podcast here in Las Vegas during Super Bowl Week set him up to answer a key question that haunts the Dallas Cowboys … and the Green Bay Packers young QB offered an honest answer about how his underdog team demolished the Cowboys in a shocking 48-32 wild-card round outcome.
“I’m not trying to talk (smack),” Love said, “but y’all linebackers – I think you had a DB playing linebacker.”
There is no “think” about it. Under departed coordinator Dan Quinn (and in part due to the season-ending injury of Leighton Vander Esch), the Cowboys defense – as successful as it was in the department of play-making – in many ways forfeited size for speed. Over the course of the year, young safeties like Markquese Bell (205 pounds) and Juanyeh Thomas (217 pounds) were converted into front-seven players. Additionally, physical safeties like Donovan Wilson (204 pounds) and Jayron Kearse (215 pounds) were asked to help stuff the run.
“I think the key for us going into the game was that we needed to run the ball,” Love said on the Parsons podcast. “That was the huge thing.”
“The huge thing” worked. The Packers plowed for 123 clock-controlling yards, setting up Love to then throw for 272 yards and three touchdowns.
Team owner Jerry Jones has spoken openly about how the loss to the Packers exposed three specific weaknesses.
Those issues will have to be corrected if the Cowboys want to make a deep run next year. “That was our goal, is to be able to run the ball and that was going to set everything else up.”
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