17:47 Pacific --  I don't play the homer very often on FanNation. I have always tried to treat the writing side of things with some objectivity, though I am not beyond some friendly banter in a private thread now and then with people who I know will not take offense to anything I say. But as I sit, watching the Packers take on Dallas at Lambeau Field for effective NFC bragging rights... well, that'll come with time. The play has started again...

Harris is back in the game, and Jenkins hasn't taken the foul. Lambeau is going insane, causing disruption among the Cowboys offense. Mike McCarthy is flipping about the stoppage of the play clock... rightly so, though it all goes for nought as Witten gets over the marker for the first down. Felix Jones busts toward midfield; this Dallas drive has me paranoid, though the next play goes a yard shy of the next first down. Third and one...

Marion Barber subs in. Romo calls down the line. Barber bowls over the line and gets another first down... I can't focus on salient thought right now, the second beer... wait, third... of the night going down bitter as Dallas marches downfield... and then a Crayton end-around reverse goes incomplete to the endzone as Owens is superbly covered...

... and as easy as that, Barber bowls for twenty-some more and Dallas is knocking on the door again... 12 plays for sixty yards, 5:45 on the drive... third and eight... Romo in the shotgun... and another damn first down... another slug of beer and I'm almost just waiting for the inevitable score so that I can sneak out for another cigarette...

But then Aaron Kampman gets a sack on Romo, second and fifteen back on the sixteen now... Barber gets pulled down by Al Harris as he tries to break wide right after only a yard gained... third and fourteen... call it thirteen... Nick Collins intercepts the ball in the endzone! He... runs it out?! But there's one... two... three cuts and jukes and he's down in Dallas territory. One second left in the first quarter, and Green Bay avoids going down AND takes great field position to take their own lead... and then they fumble back into their own territory to end the quarter...

Al Michaels calls it "a pretty good quarter"... but I don't know what HE was watching... 

18:53 Pacific --  So it is halftime in Green Bay, Dallas up 13-6... Aaron Rodgers has been competent but not spectacular, completing eight of thirteen for 94 yards with neither a touchdown nor an interception to show for it. Tony Romo, his opposite field general, has been held to 75 yards on nine of fifteen with one interception. A lone Felix Jones sixty-yard touchdown run makes the difference in the game...

The big difference in this game is that, while Green Bay is passing well enough, their running game is falling sorely short. While Marion Barber and Felix Jones continue to chew up yards for Dallas, Ryan Grant appears hamstrung (literally) as he has only 35 yards on eight carries... with a fumble on the first that led to the first Nick Folk field goal for the Cowboys. Dallas is controlling possession... the Packers must find a way to sustain drives and keep its defense off the field if this game is to remain competitive in the second half...

Dallas has had over sixty percent of the possession in the first half (18:05-11:55), and has appeared more composed on this Sunday night stage. But we'll see... Romo has appeared flustered at times, and Terrell Owens has hardly been the big threat that he boasted before the showdown, held to two receptions for 17 yards in the first half. The Packers defense has been stout... but Dallas has simply been stouter against the run... and it is the run that sustains drives.

Dallas gets the ball first in the second half... so that Packer defense must hold firm again on Alumni Weekend in Green Bay. The ghosts and legends of Lambeau past are all present to witness the changing of the guard... 

19:25 Pacific --  Romo and Rodgers traded long bombs... but whereas it ended in a Mason Crosby field goal for Green Bay, Marion Barber has provided the rushing muscle that the Packers simply haven't sustained tonight. 20-9 Dallas and it is beginning to look worse and worse for the Packers. This next drive will define which way this game ultimately turns, I should imagine...

John Madden is the most insane old senile pile of drivel I have heard in quite some time. Not having television for a five-year span totally made me miss how far down the depths of delirium he has slipped. It is nothing but Al Michaels making snide jokes and Madden babbling on and on...

They're just farting around and letting Dallas get to Rodgers. He has no time to find the open men downfield, Donald Lee and Donald Driver and James Jones and Greg Jennings all having their moments of freedom only to go unnoticed. Another three and out, a punt, and the Cowboys have it back again near midfield... the field-position game is swinging HARD toward Dallas... 

19:48 Pacific --  The Cowboys drive further onward, eleven minutes left in the fourth quarter. Third and seven on their own thirty-five. Romo passes, completes to Witten, and there's another first down... the seventeenth of the game for Dallas. Another set of downs, Barber takes the draw, and crosses midfield to gain another first down immediately. The Cowboys have held the ball for nearly thirty minutes now, and the clock stops with 9:22 left as Owens drops a Romo pass...

But that feels of little effect right now. This game feels as though it is already in the books... 

Miles Austin has been the revelation of the game for the Cowboys. He had the reception on that long drive that culminated in the Barber run to make it 20-9... and now he catches a rope along the sideline on third and twenty to put Dallas up by eighteen with nine minutes remaining. Romo has his touchdown pass now, and it is the six-three, 215-pound third-year receiver out of Monmouth who gets the reception rather than his more-celebrated contemporaries in the Cowboy receiver corps. Austin now has two catches for 115 yards and the freshest nail in the Packer coffin...

... and Green Bay shoots itself in the foot with a holding penalty on the kickoff to negate a good return. Big shocker...

20:11 Pacific --  NOW the Packers show signs of life. Greg Jennings is now over one-hundred yards after his eighth reception of the evening. Just under four minutes remain, and the packers are inside the Dallas 30. Brandon Jackson bowls inside the ten, but there are two flags on the field... which is holding, yet another holding penalty. Screen pass becomes a ten-yard deficit. That's really been the story of the Packers' evening... they've had opportunities but made their own misfortune...

Rodgers is throwing high like a true freshman playing his first Pac-10 game rather than the seasoned replacement for Brett Favre that he is supposed to be. Offsides on the Cowboys makes it second and fifteen... and Mike McCarthy look upset. My wife, watching the game with me, had to comment on how hilarious both quarterbacks look in this game. They've got funny faces... they are funny-looking men. As I type this, the funny-looking quarterback from Cal makes another first down, but time is running short in Green Bay. With eighteen points to catch up and less than three minutes left, this is merely an effort to reduce the gap to look better in tomorrow's box scores...

Another first down reception by rookie Jordy Nelson from Kansas State gets them to first and goal, and then a holding call in the endzone gets the Packers half the distance. Rodgers keeps the ball and pulls his own Bart Starr moment to get the Packers within twelve. They should be going for two... Madden's asking, Michaels doesn't think it's smart... and it is all academic because they'd need two onside recoveries and two scores to knot this thing up...

But at least now the gap is merely eleven. Madden and Michaels, meanwhile, merely care about a discourse on cheese. The onside kick was recovered by the Packers, but not beyond that ten-yard mark that is required for a successful recovery. So a five-yard penalty is assessed, the Dallas offense will take over on the Green Bay 34, 2:11 remaining... Barber runs ahead for a yard to bring it to the two-minute warning. But Green Bay takes the timeout with 2:08, second and nine...

Saving seconds with another timeout, Madden picks his Horse Trailer Player of the Game... and deservedly, I must say, it is Marion Barber. I would've taken Miles Austin, but Madden's senile... so it's okay. Now they're talking horse racing... anything but football as the Cowboys launch out of bounds on third and eight. Fourth down and eight, two minute warning... 

20:29 Pacific --  An illegal forward pass on an attempted lateral from Donald Driver to Jordy Nelson busts up another gain. Forward momentum must be found in more than spurts for this Packer team to go forward from this loss. This season is hardly lost... remember that last season Dallas held the top seed yet failed to advance past the Divisional playoff round while Green Bay hosted the NFC Championship. Rodgers has gone 20 of 35 for 261 yards, but on this last-gasp fourth-and-ten he completes a twenty-first for a first down with thirty-six seconds remaining. Green Bay is finally trying to use the clock and manufacture a drive judiciously with so little time remaining... but Rodgers is dumped eleven yards behind the line for a sack, and the game's probably all done. Final timeout taken, Green Bay's effectively done. Twenty-seven seconds remaining... now all they can do is get ready to travel to former divisional rival Tampa Bay next week...

Fourth and twenty-two... but at eleven down there's little except mathematics to play for, a little more padding on the stats for good measure... Tony Romo comes out for the final knee and that's the contest, 27-16... Dallas takes the victory and stays apace with Super Bowl champion New York in the NFC East. Green Bay stays a game ahead of Minnesota and Chicago in the NFC North... even in defeat there's still hope...