Love tells Parsons how the Packers beat the Cowboys in playoffs

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love. Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK

Jordan Love tells Micah Parsons how the Packers beat the Cowboys in the playoffs

By Andrew Kulha | Last updated 2/12/24

Credit to Dallas Cowboys pass-rusher Micah Parsons. He didn't have to go back and trudge up bad memories.

Speaking with Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love this past week, Parson could have asked Love about anything other than the Packers' 48-32 upset win over the Cowboys in Dallas. He could have discussed what it's like to live in Green Bay, or how Love liked backing up future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers for the first few years of his career. Those are easy questions.

That's not what Parsons wanted to know, though. He wanted to know how Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur was able to scheme up what ended up being total demolition of what was one of the best defenses in the NFL during the regular season.

"I'm not trying to talk (smack),'' Love said, prefacing his answer (h/t Sports Illustrated), "but y'all linebackers — I think you had a DB playing linebacker."

Jordan Love breaks down the game plan that destroyed the Cowboys defense wild card weekend pic.twitter.com/cwGwH9jKCF
— Coles Cowboys (@ColesCowboys) February 10, 2024

Love was referring to the fact that the Cowboys had to "go small" when linebacker Leighton Vander Esch suffered a season-ending neck injury in Week 5.

Dallas often asked safeties to play down in the box against the run, and that was something the Packers felt they could exploit.

"I think the key for us going into the game was that we needed to run the ball. That was the huge thing," Love explained.

The Packers stuck to the plan, which resulted in Aaron Jones rushing 21 times for 118 yards and three touchdowns. Green Bay's running game opened up a ton of room for Love to work with in the air, which allowed him to complete 16-of-21 passes for 272 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.

"That was our goal, is to be able to run the ball and that was going to set everything else up," Love explained.

It was the goal all along and the Packers executed.

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