Packers-Cowboys Playoffs: Road Warriors vs. Home Cooking

In the pantheon of great homefield advantages, you might think of the Green Bay Packers on the Frozen Tundra. Or the Kansas City Chiefs or Seattle Seahawks, who play at two of the loudest stadiums in the NFL. Or the “Skol”-chanting Minnesota Vikings.

Instead, by record, it’s the Dallas Cowboys.

With the Green Bay Packers heading to Dallas for an NFC wild-card game on Sunday, contending with the Cowboys’ homefield advantage is just another challenge on top of facing the likes of Dak Prescott and Micah Parsons.

“It’s going to be just a great experience for our guys to go through this, and we’re looking forward to the challenge,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “We’ve got a great opponent, at their home stadium, and they’re playing some really good football right now.”

The Cowboys were the only team to go undefeated at home this season. In their eight games, they outscored their opponents by a resounding 21.5 points per game. That includes six wins by 20-plus points and three by at least 32. In home games, they led the NFL in:

- Points scored (37.4 per game; 5.5 more than any other team and almost double Green Bay’s 19.4).

- Total offense (425.8 yards per game; just ahead of the 49ers).

- Passing offense (305.4 yards per game; almost 20 yards better than any other team).

- Turnover margin (1.25 per game; only team better than 1.0).

In fact, the Cowboys are riding a 16-game home winning streak. Their only home loss over the last two years was the 2022 opener against Tampa Bay, when Dak Prescott suffered a broken thumb and was replaced by Cooper Rush.

If anyone understands how trivial homefield advantage can be in the playoffs, it’s Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy. As coach of the Packers, his team beat the Eagles, Falcons and Bears on the road en route to winning Super Bowl XLV.

“We need to play our best football,” McCarthy said after beating Washington in the finale. “It doesn’t matter who we play, where we’re playing, and that has to be our mindset. I won a Super Bowl going on the road. It’s about how you’re playing. It’s the team that plays the best this time of year. Our goal is to work and get hot and go get this wild-card game and go on from there.”

Of 30 quarterbacks to throw at least 120 passes in home games this season, Dallas’ Dak Prescott was No. 1 in passer rating (120.0), completion percentage (72.3), touchdown passes (22) and touchdown percentage (7.6), No. 2 in yards (2,470), No. 3 in interception percentage (1.0) and No. 4 in yards per attempt (8.6).

“It’s huge, the atmosphere that the Cowboys fans have created at AT&T, the way that we’ve come out these last two years,” Prescott said. “But I can tell you this: We can’t lean on that. We’ve got to lean on our preparation. We’ve got to commit to studying these guys, to being our best, knowing our execution, knowing what’s expected of us and playing to our standard.”

The Packers went 4-5 on the road this season, though they did win at Carolina in Week 16 and Minnesota in Week 17.

Of note, the Packers scored 29-plus points in four games. All four were on the road. Overall, they finished third with 25.3 points per game on the road. No quarterback threw more touchdown passes away from home than Jordan Love, who tossed 19 on the way to a fifth-ranked passer rating of 95.3.

“I think we’ve been getting better every game,” Love said. “Every week, we’re finding ways to improve and get better and now we’re in the dance. We’re going to continue doing the same thing we’ve been doing and try to find ways to get better, but I like where our offense is moving. We’re moving in the right direction.”