A rivalry, unnaturally.

[Packerlifer]

Next to the Bears & Vikings and maybe the Lions, the one club Packers' fans most love to see their team beat is the Dallas Cowboys.
The Green Bay-Dallas rivalry isn't divisional or geographic but it is about titles. In a rivalry that stretches back now over 4 decades, the Packers & Cowboys have linked up in 6 championship or playoff games & in 5 of them the winner has gone on to win the Super Bowl.
Those games helped define the identities of both the Packers & Cowboys and have always lurked in the background of regular season meetings, several of which have had playoff implications. Such as last season and this week's meeting.
The rivalry took off, of course, with the 1966 and '67 NFL Championship Games, both won narrowly and dramatically by the Packers. The first was at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, when the Cowboys made their first postseason appearance ever. On New Year's Day 1967 the Packers won a shoot-out 34-27 when the Cowboys advanced to the GB goal line in the last minute only to lose on an end zone interception by Packers safety Tom Brown. On the following New Years Eve in Dec. in Green Bay came the Ice Bowl; which every Packers fan knows the outcome.
Those victories completed the triple world championship run of the Packers under Vince Lombardi and cemented the Packers as the Team of the Decade for the '60's and a team for the ages in pro football history.
The Cowboys were left in agony by those defeats, since they considered themselves the better team. They were labeled "chokers" and "next year's champions." But Dallas did go on to establish their own reign of glory in the 1970's on. They became "America's Team;" a consistently winning, perenniel playoff team that would add up 8 Super Bowl appearances and 5 wins over the next 25 years.
And during that stretch they would get the chance to dig back at the Pack for those 2 classic championship defeats. In 1982,1993, 1994 & 1995 the Packers would reach the playoffs only to be stopped short of the Super Bowl by the Dallas Cowboys.
That title showdown background carried over into almost every Packers-Cowboys game played in regular seasons as well.
In 1968 as the Packers' dynasty was unraveling and Dallas was undefeated at midseason, Green Bay went to Dallas for a Monday night game; even though this was before MNF. The 6-0 Cowboys were looking like the next NFL champion and heavily favored over the 2-3-1 Packers. But after falling behind 10-0 the Pack came back and rolled to a 28-17 win. Even though they went 12-2 and reached the playoffs, Dallas was never quite the same after that game and lost to underdog Cleveland in a conference playoff.
In 1972 the Cowboys were Super Bowl champions for the first time when they came to Wisconsin to meet an upstart young Packers team in the third game of the season. Though Dallas was favored, the Packers won 16-13 and went on to a 10-4 season and won the Central Division for the first time since '67.
In 1975 the winless Packers visited the undefeated Cowboys and picked up their first win under coach Bart Starr 19-17.
In 1978 the Packers appeared on a run to the NFC Central title with a 7-2 record but the Cowboys came in and smashed them 42-14. Green Bay staggered home after that to only an 8-7-1 finish and missed the playoffs.
Then there was the Thanksgiving Day game in 1994 when the Cowboys beat the Packers 42-31 with third string qb Jason Garrett running their offense. And the 1996 MNF meeting when Green Bay kept Dallas out of the end zone all night but lost on 7 field goals 21-6. It was one of only 3 losses by the Packers as they supplanted the Cowboys as Super Bowl champs that season but the loss and Dallas' upset loss to Carolina which denied the Pack a chance at them at Lambeau in the NFC Championship took a little edge off the full satisfaction of that season.
In 1997 the Packers demonstrated how that championship might have gone when they finally got the hated Cowpokes in Green Bay and won 45-17. Dallas dropped from the playoffs after that game that season and the next.
But in '99 they were back to vex the Packers: They beat Green Bay 27-13 and edged the Packers at the finish line for a wild card playoff berth.
Now, here we are again with the two distant cities of Green Bay & Dallas eyeing each other for a playoff advantage. Last season when they met at Dallas as 10-1 teams it was for home field advantage. As 2-0 teams this week it isn't that clear yet but both will know the potential implications of the result down the line.
This is a heckuva rivalry, folks and should be a helluva game.

 

[Crweems11]

The more I think about it, the harder it is to think of two teams that hate each other more than the Packers and Cowboys.

 

[Pugger]

I think what began to drive Packer fans crazy, especially in the last few meetings, was that it seemed like we had to go down to TX repeatedly and they haven't been in Wisconsin in over a decade!

 

[Packerlifer]

The 'Boys did come up to Green Bay in '04, when Parcells was still coaching them, and got hammered 41-20.

 

[Packerlifer]

Re: Just for the record.

Dallas currently leads the all-time series with Green Bay 11-10. The Cowboys lead in playoff/championship game meetings 4-2 but the Packers are ahead in the regular season log 8-7.
The two clubs are tied in cumulative points scored at 461-461.
Since the game this week is at Lambeau, the Packers are 7-2 all-time at home in Wisconsin vs. Dallas and hasn't lost a game in Green Bay or Milwaukee to the Cowboys since 1980.
Vince Lombardi (4-0), Lindy Infante (2-0) & Dan Devine (1-0) are Packers coaches who never lost a game to Dallas. So far, only current Cowboys coach Wade Phillips (1-0) is the only Dallas hc to never lose a game to Green Bay. Atleast among those who have played the Packers.

 

[PackOne]

Is it Sunday yet?

 

[longtimefan]

Is it Sunday yet?

no cuz if it was, the Brewers would be 4 games out of the wild card race

 

[Doomsday]

As a Cowboy fan and overall fan of the game, I love the rivalry between the Boys and the Pack. To me it is mostly a rivalry born out of respect though, not hate. Two great, storied franchises with proud winning traditions going at it, what's not to love about that?

You want to talk about hated rivalries, that would be the Cowboys vs any of the other NFC East teams. I think some of the bitterest blood is between the Cowboys and Eagles. I for one can't stand Philly and I loathe losing to them. A game between the Cowboys and Packers is like a gentlemen's duel, whereas a game against the Eagles is more like getting assaulted in a prison shower.

 

[Packerlifer]

As a Cowboy fan and overall fan of the game, I love the rivalry between the Boys and the Pack. To me it is mostly a rivalry born out of respect though, not hate. Two great, storied franchises with proud winning traditions going at it, what's not to love about that?

You want to talk about hated rivalries, that would be the Cowboys vs any of the other NFC East teams. I think some of the bitterest blood is between the Cowboys and Eagles. I for one can't stand Philly and I loathe losing to them. A game between the Cowboys and Packers is like a gentlemen's duel, whereas a game against the Eagles is more like getting assaulted in a prison shower.

Well said. I've always respected the Cowboys. Although your owner Jerry Jones makes it difficult at times. He would be the George Steinbrenner of the NFL if not for the sal-cap, etc. His conceit and arrogance doesn't help the Dallas image very well.
I've never been able to figure out how your Texas folks can put up with that Arkansas Razorback. Remember how he came in and tossed Tom Landry in the dumpster? Or how he tried to hog credit for the team Jimmy Johnson built and he only wrote the checks? Giving you guys Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey and Dave Campo so he could play coach and personnel man. He brought Parcells in after years of losing and not making the playoffs because "his" team couldn't cut it. Parcells got the Cowboys back on track before leaving but Wade Phillips is another guy who won't compete for the glory with Jerry.
I gotta tell ya, I loved those last seconds of the Giants playoff game last Jan., not so much because the Cowboys lost but because Jones had to come down and die like that on the sideline.

 

[cowboyuptx]

As a Cowboy fan and overall fan of the game, I love the rivalry between the Boys and the Pack. To me it is mostly a rivalry born out of respect though, not hate. Two great, storied franchises with proud winning traditions going at it, what's not to love about that?

You want to talk about hated rivalries, that would be the Cowboys vs any of the other NFC East teams. I think some of the bitterest blood is between the Cowboys and Eagles. I for one can't stand Philly and I loathe losing to them. A game between the Cowboys and Packers is like a gentlemen's duel, whereas a game against the Eagles is more like getting assaulted in a prison shower.

Well said. I've always respected the Cowboys. Although your owner Jerry Jones makes it difficult at times. He would be the George Steinbrenner of the NFL if not for the sal-cap, etc. His conceit and arrogance doesn't help the Dallas image very well.
I've never been able to figure out how your Texas folks can put up with that Arkansas Razorback. Remember how he came in and tossed Tom Landry in the dumpster? Or how he tried to hog credit for the team Jimmy Johnson built and he only wrote the checks? Giving you guys Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey and Dave Campo so he could play coach and personnel man. He brought Parcells in after years of losing and not making the playoffs because "his" team couldn't cut it. Parcells got the Cowboys back on track before leaving but Wade Phillips is another guy who won't compete for the glory with Jerry.
I gotta tell ya, I loved those last seconds of the Giants playoff game last Jan., not so much because the Cowboys lost but because Jones had to come down and die like that on the sideline.

I'll always hold a little grudge against Jerrah for not holding onto Jimmy, and for the circus the team became in the almost 10 years that followed... However, Jerry did eventually see the error in ways and hired Parcells... Jones really wanted Parcells to stay, but Bill was spent... Jerry's very next move, before he even hired a Head-Coach, he hired Jason Garrett, who was the Dolphins QB coach at the time... It seems pretty understood, that if Wade doesn't get it done this year, Garrett will be the head-coach of the Cowboys next year... And I have all the confidence in the world in that guy, as does Jerry... I think that Jerry's learned his lesson...

Also, Jerry has to be given a lot of credit for his draft day maneuvering, as well as his ability to get Free-Agents to want to sign with the Dallas Cowboys... Tony Romo for example, the Broncos offered him more money as a Rookie-FA than the Cowboys did, but Jerry was able to convince Romo that in the long run, Dallas was the place to be... If you watched Hard Knocks this year, you saw numerous other Rookie-FA sign with Dallas for less money than they were offered elsewhere... Players want to know that if they perform well, then they're gonna be compensated fairly for it, and hopefully they wont have to become a Free-Agent and relocate... Jones has built a reputation for always paying the guys who perform well...

You gotta take the bad with the good, and overall, Jerrah's definitely more good than bad for the Dallas Cowboys... Btw, his son Steven, who will eventually take over Jerry's role completely, he's a great guy, and will be an even better owner than his dad..