Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

Cowboys make brutal NFL history with ugly wild-card loss to Packers

By Jeff Smith | Last updated 1/15/24

Being on the wrong side of history is the least of the Dallas Cowboys' problems right now. However, following their ugly 48-32 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the NFL's wild-card round of the playoffs, the team's name will now be etched into the record books.

Sunday's loss marked the third-straight season in which the Cowboys have won 12 games in the regular season but failed to make it to the championship game, leaving them as the first team to do so, as ESPN's Jordan Raanan highlighted.

This explains it all per @ESPNStatsInfo: #Cowboys are the first team since the merger to win 12 games in three straight seasons ... and fail to make a championship game in any of them.
— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) January 15, 2024

It's a brutal result and a stat highlighting the team's postseason shortcomings. While the Cowboys have come up short in previous years, at times in brutal fashion offensively, this loss falls on essentially all aspects of the team.

Very little went right during the loss, as two Aaron Jones touchdowns left Dallas in a 14-0 hole early in the second quarter. But after a Jordan Love touchdown pass to Dontayvion Wicks, Dak Prescott's pick-six left them in a 27-0 hole before the game even hit halftime.

The loss was so bad that it's seemingly left Mike McCarthy's seat hotter than ever, and his future will be worth monitoring over the coming days.

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