Puzzling Dez Bryant Review Overshadows Aaron Rodgers As a Goddamn Assassin

I went to Lambeau yesterday. I don’t regret doing that. In no particular order, these are my thoughts about what went down.

1. In our conversation a few months ago, Bob Ryan blamed the proliferation of sports talk radio for what he said was the comparatively recent development of fans and media keying in on negatives rather than what went right. This has been on my mind when, for the second straight week, the referees were overwhelmingly the focal point of discussion in the aftermath of Cowboys playoff games. Both times, this has obscured perhaps a half-dozen plays or sequences that were at least as important to the game’s final result.

(We’ll get to the Dez reversal later, both in this piece and in a separate microanalysis of the rule, but there are a lot of other details that deserve conversation.)

With a little over four minutes left in the third quarter, the Packers were down 21-13. They’d been outscored 21-6 since early in the first quarter, and what was left of their season was at a crossroad. After picking up one first down, Aaron Rodgers threw a dart over two defenders to Randall Cobb f0r a 26-yard gain. Three downs later, not yet in field goal range, Rodgers and Davante Adams turned 3rd-and-15 into a 46-yard touchdown. If Dallas gets a stop there and then mounts a sustained drive, well, they’d have the privilege of (probably) getting gradually suffocated by Seattle next week.

2. From there on out, Rodgers completed all 10 of his throws (excepting a failed two-point conversion attempt), including a touchdown drive where the Packers ran eight passing plays and zero runs — this pass to Richard Rodgers belongs in the Metropolitan:

This play happened right in front of our seats, and no one around us had any clue how the hell Aaron Rodgers did that. If this ball were thrown a couple inches differently in any direction, the completion’s not happening. One of the much dumber criticisms of Rodgers over the years is that he has so few interceptions because he’s too risk averse. In the second half of this game he took a bunch of chances. On those plays, I would gasp nervously in anticipation of an interception that never came before it would somehow wind up picking up yardage as my gulp 180’ed into a cheer. I don’t think I could replicate that sound deliberately, or in any other circumstance. Some of those gambles may not be so successful against the Seahawks secondary, though.

3. Speaking of dumb Rodgers criticism, if you’re one of those who likes to keep score, this one counted as a fourth quarter comeback against a team with a winning record.

4. If it hasn’t happened already, non-Packers fans will grow fatigued with hearing about Rodgers’ dinged up golden calf. But Rodgers’ second half yesterday was a legendary performance with or without limitations. As tends to happen when he’s banged up, Rodgers struggled at times in the first half before finding his groove. Struggled may not be the right word, because it’s not like he was bad, but he just wasn’t the laser surgeon we know he can be. Waiting for deep patterns to develop, he held the ball too long several times, which exposed his body to risk, as well as causing negative yardage and one lost fumble. Randall Cobb had a step or two downfield at one point, and there was either a miscommunication or an overthrow (or both), and Rodgers had Nelson open deep on a free offsides play but couldn’t keep him inbounds.

Dallas could’ve put more distance up in these stretches. One that stood out was towards the end of the second quarter when Jason Witten was awarded with a first down on an atrocious spot. Instead of recognizing the blunder and hustling to the line, the Cowboys called timeout, during which officials signaled for a booth review. If there were urgency here — or on the Dez Bryant play — to get a quick play off, perhaps one or both of them may not have been given a second look. This type of thing is a common occurrence in the league, and it always baffles me that teams don’t reflexively try to nullify potential challenges by swiftly burning a down after big plays that have any doubt.

Instead, Dallas had a busted play on 3rd down, and missed a field goal with enough time for the Packers to respond with a made kick and a six-point swing headed into the half.

5. Don’t forget to mark that DeMarco Murray fumble down as a major what-if. He had about several thousand yards of open field ahead of him if Julius Peppers didn’t knock that ball out. As an aside, the Peppers signing could not have worked out any better for Green Bay.

6. With yesterday’s performance, Davante Adams leapt like six rounds in next year’s fantasy drafts.

7. When Dez Bryant caught that ball, Lambeau went silent. It was like when you’re on a treadmill listening to loud music and an involuntary arm music knocks out the headphone chord and sends your device flying. Oh shit, is it broken?

I say “when” and “caught” because I do think that’s what happened. Lisk will go into the specifics of how it’s poorly worded and contradictory in the rule book a little later — and he also wrote about that with Calvin Johnson in 2010 — but it just seems, common sense-wise, that should count as a catch. Or, at the very least, that there was not indisputable evidence to overturn. Last year, NFL VP of Officiating Dean Blandino talked about a Julius Thomas play that seems comparable to me, and said that Thomas established himself as a runner by taking two steps after controlling the ball. Did Dez not do that?

Nevertheless, we’ve also all seen (over a dozen?) similar plays get ruled incomplete — the rule does not seem to be enforced consistently — and receivers should be aware of that by now to take sufficient precaution. This reversal was certainly no more dubious than an announcement of pass interference followed by an announcement of no flag without any explanation. The last thing the league wanted on this review would’ve been more outcry of an elaborate ratings conspiracy, links to a shit-eating-grinned Blandino hopping off the team’s party bus, and shots of Jerry Jones and Chris Christie having a clothed orgy in the owner’s box.

Based on the way the rule has been applied in the past, the NFL was damned the moment that ball grazed the ground, but that’s what they get for not being more clear and unvarying. Nobody fully understands this rule, and that’s embarrassing for a league so rigid that it’ll fine players for deviantly colored footwear.

8. The game is viewed so much differently inside the stadium than when you’re glued to Twitter. While that call was all anybody was talking about online, it was not at the forefront of fans’ minds in there. Most remained cheering in their seats upwards of 10 minutes after the final kneel-down, GO PACK GO chants rang throughout the corridor on the way out, and vigorous high fives and embraces were exchanged amongst strangers. This is why you lift all them weights.

None of us wants to forego the glory of NFL Sundays on television too many times a season, but this was one hell of a live experience. I’ve been to some disappointing playoff exits at Lambeau in recent years, and this experience made all those worth it.

9. He doesn’t often get a lot of credit because he will occasionally mess up the clock or challenges, and never says anything all that profound, but Mike McCarthy coached a hell of a game. To me, the key illustration of this was when the Packers were faced with 3rd-and-11 coming out of the two minute warning. They could’ve run the ball, burned an additional 45-50 seconds off the clock, and attempted a long field goal that, if made, would’ve ensured that the worst case scenario was overtime. (Though the real nightmare would’ve been a missed kick and a short field for a potential Cowboys win.) Instead of taking the coward’s way out, the Packers ran a passing play, Rodgers hit Randall Cobb for a first down, and the game was iced. At least 20 NFL teams run on that play.

12. For the third year out of four, I booked my hotel at a point where there was a decent, but not certain, shot the Packers would have a home playoff game that weekend. Consequently, I was able to get a nice room about two blocks from Lambeau for $110/night (plus tax). Since the room was cancelable, there was no risk involved. The woman at the front desk had to (discount) double-check our rate to make sure it wasn’t a typo or something as everyone else was paying about $300/night. There’s nothing quite like beating the system.

13. What a fantastic weekend. These will be the good old days we look back on.

Related: Home Games: A Banner Weekend in Wisconsin
Related: On the Road: Epic Game-Days in Baton Rouge and New Orleans