Lacy, Starks carry Packers past Cowboys

A 30-yard touchdown run by James Starks clinched victory for the Packers, 28-7, on a day when Coach Mike McCarthy took back the play-calling and the Packers leaned on their power running game. Totaling 148 yards of offense, Lacy was crucial in shutting the door on the Cowboys late, derailing any chance of a comeback. When we watch the Packers Cowboys game live streaming or on TV today, Dallas will try to score their touchdowns earlier in the game. The role he bestowed upon Tom Clements, his associate head coach/offense, reached its expiration date after just 12 games, a number of ugly performances and surprisingly uncharacteristic statistics from quarterback Aaron Rodgers. They are full game in front of the Vikings in the NFC North standings who lost to Arizona on Thursday night. Still, he threw for 218 passing yards, completing 62.9 percent of his attempts, with two touchdown tosses and no interceptions, Dallas once again unable to come up with a turnover.

A week after barely seeing the field after missing curfew in Detroit, Eddie Lacy responded with 124 yards rushing and hopes this is the way the offense keeps performing as the regular season winds down. Dallas rushed for 171 yards, and 80 came on four plays that led to Turbin’s score. He had a long reception in the second quarter overturned on replay – the same thing happened to him last season during the Cowboys’ loss to the Packers in an NFC divisional round playoff game.

On second-and-goal from the 3, the Packers lined up with a run-heavy formation.

Green Bay (8-4) almost got swept by the Lions last week and only survived because Aaron Rodgers threw a hail mary as time expired and connected for a touchdown.

The Packers did give up two big runs to Cowboys running back Darren McFadden in the first quarter and third quarter, but other than that Clay Matthews and his defensive teammates held the Dallas offense in check. Green Bay finished with 230 rushing yards.

The Cowboys (4-9) clinched their first losing season under Garrett, who took over when the team was 1-7 in 2010.

“He’s a big, strong, powerful runner”, Rodgers said. A week after catching his 1,000th career pass, Dallas TE Jason Witten played in his 200th consecutive game….

Cowboys chaos: The absence of Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo figured to make the challenge of containing Dez Bryant much easier for Green Bay’s pass defense. I’m not a guy that makes a lot of mistakes or bad things off the field either.

Today’s game is meaningful because of the controversial no touchdown call with Dez Bryant a year ago that eliminated the Cowboys from the playoffs. The Cowboys were just 1 of 11 on third down and 0 for 2 on fourth down….

Randall Cobb was the Packers’ leading receiver with eight receptions for 81 yards. It was the first time since October 18 that Starks topped 50 yards on the ground.