Packers fans should be hopeful after this performance

Beyond the obvious W in the win column, the Green Bay Packers and we as fans should be pleased with how they played in their overtime win over the Cowboys.

I’ll get a pair of negatives out of the way and then jump into the positives.

The Amari Rodgers experience as a returner went just about as well as its always gone. He put another ball on the ground today. His fourth fumble on returns this season and his seventh career fumble.

The defense giving up 21 unanswered points was also not in Joe Barry’s game plan. Included in all of that was a poor performance from Jaire Alexander. He has not been as sharp as he should be for the amount he has been getting paid.

For the first time, seemingly all season, the Packers were resilient. They showed backbone, toughness, grit and every other adjective you would hear in a Ford-F150 commercial.

After letting Dallas go on the 21-0 run that started right before half, the Packers scores 17 straight points in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Included in all of that was five straight stops by the defense. Three punts, holding as time ran out in the half and then getting a stop on fourth down in overtime. Big time stuff from a unit that I have criticized heavily throughout the season.

Staying on that side of the ball… Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!

Rudy Ford came in and was immediately impactful after taking the place of Darnell Savage this week. While Savage had a good game playing in the slot, Ford stole the show getting interceptions on back to back drives off Dak Prescott. He looked like a playmaker and the Packers are going to need that desperately the rest of this season.

Aaron Rodgers and Co. scored in the 30’s for the first time this season and it could not have come at a better time.

The run game bullied the Cowboys weak run defense. Jones and Dillon combined for 37 carries for 203 yards with Jones getting a touchdown on the ground. The Packers were down by 14 in the fourth quarter and kept with the run game. Finally.

Aaron Rodgers had a very good day. He passed for three touchdowns for the first time this season and for the first time since their Christmas Day victory over the Browns last season.

Rodgers was extremely efficient. He had 11.2 yards per attempt, his highest of the season and nearly two yards higher than any other game this season.

He had his third highest completion percentage of the year as well and you can argue it should have been higher. Rodgers had only six incompletions in the game. One was a throwaway, two were misses and the last three were drops by Christian Watson.

But wow, did Watson make up for his drops.

The rookie had four catches for 107 yards and a trio of touchdown snags.

Rodgers said post-game that he thought some demons were exorcised and its hard not to agree with how the career of Watson has started.

Watson’s durability had been an issue and so had drops. He had left the game with an injury and came back and put up that performance. It’s also hard to underestimate how much it could mean for Watson’s and even Rodgers’ future that 12 gave him another six targets after his pair of opening possession drops, especially with how the season opener went.

This game saw a maturation of Watson and for fourth-year head coach Matt LaFleur and eighteenth-year quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers didn’t ice out the rookie. LaFleur didn’t give up on the run. And both of them realized that Watson can be the deep threat the Packers have been searching for this season.

I don’t know how this season ends for the Packers.

Will the make the playoffs? Maybe, but not likely.

Will they have a top 10 pick? That is still a possibility.

But the team did some growing up against Dallas and showed us something we hadn’t seen in a while—a victory, and we should be excited about that.