🧀 A Shocking Upset In Dallas

I guess the stadium is called Jordan World now…

In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter presented by Wildgrain:

What’s that saying, again?

Any given Sunday??

Ya, I think that’s the one…

🧀 The Packers shock the Cowboys

The red-hot Green Bay Packers were the second biggest underdogs across all of the Wildcard Weekend games, but they looked like a legitimate Super Bowl contender yesterday on their way to a 48-32 rout of the fraudulent Dallas Cowboys.

Matt LaFleur dialed up an aggressive game plan that Jordan Love executed with precision. We’ll talk more about Aaron Jones’ massive day in the Weekly Wrap-Up below, but this was a dominant overall team performance by the entire Packers, including the defense who picked off Dak Prescott twice.

We’ll spend all week breaking down the Packers’ chances to upset the Niners in San Francisco, but for now, it’s the Dallas Cowboys who are under the microscope:

A dejected Jerry Jones and droves of Cowboys fans headed to the exit early on Sunday and it now seems very likely that Mike McCarthy will be shown the door as well.

🦁 The Lions win their first playoff game since 1992

The Lions certainly deserve their 24-23 win over the Rams to advance to the Divisional Round, but the story of this game was a series of bizarre coaching decisions from Sean McVay:

• Didn’t use any of his three timeouts with the ball at the end of the 1st half

• Burned two timeouts early in the 2nd half

• Punted from the Lions 44 down 24-23 with four minutes left and one timeout

Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua (more on him below) tried their best to keep the Rams alive, but the Lions were too balanced.

I think they are still partying at Ford Field.

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Peter is here to share his big takeaways from the first four games from Wildcard Weekend. Take it away, Pete...

🌟 Aaron Jones legacy game

Aaron Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, popped off for 131 yards from scrimmage and a TD hat trick.

Not only was this a homecoming game for the El Paso native, but also a bit of a revenge game, as Matthew notes here:

It’s also worth noting that Romeo Doubs (6-151-1) went completely nuts, while Jayden Reed went scoreless. This team is loaded with weapons.

🚀 Puka Nacua is “him”

We’ve been writing about Puka’s heroics all season long, so it’s no surprise that he kept it rolling in the playoffs:

The Rams lost the game, but they unearthed a cornerstone piece to their offense who is going to be very good for many years to come.

He finishes the year with a trio of impressive rookie records.

🎩 Jake Ferguson hat trick

There are no silver linings when you get dismantled as a big home favorite in the playoffs, but this is a fantasy newsletter and we have to spotlight Jake Ferguson’s nuclear game.

The Cowboys starting TE caught 10 balls for 93 yards and not one, not two, but three TDs.

💪 Rashee Rice is your new KC alpha

We’ve been pounding the table for more Rashee Rice all season and we were not disappointed on Saturday.

Rice made some big-time catches and finished the game with 8 receptions for 130 yards and 1 TD.

He’s the best pass catcher on the team, no matter what the lady in the foggy window says.

🤷 Nico Collins shrugs off the Browns D

Nico Collins has been a total animal ever since Tank Dell got injured and he continued his hot streak vs. the Browns with 100 scrimmage yards and a TD.

Some NFL WRs need the complement alongside them to succeed, but it’s clear that the Texans wideout is perfectly suited to serve as an alpha WR1:

💰 We’ve still got TWO Wild Card games left. Best bets for Monday’s action.

🧀 The Dallas Packers? Seriously, check out these stats at AT&T Stadium.

🍅 You really boo’d this man?! While embracing his family!

🤝 Paydirt = payday. TD bets for Monday’s games.

📐 Don’t lose your fantasy league. Or you might have to teach someone trigonometry.

🛍️ Dak Prescott is still going to LV. But not the one Cowboys fans want.

⚡️ The Chargers are hunting down a new coach. Can they coax him away?

🎞️ A Packers fan also got an interception. Put it on the reel.

We're humans who play fantasy football, so we are prone to overreact. Today, Kendall overreacts to surprising upsets…

Any given Saturday… Any given Sunday… We absolutely love to see it. 

👑 The legend of CJ Stroud continues

We watched the Texans take down the Browns 45-14 on Saturday at NRG Stadium and even after that game concluded I don’t think it was fully put into perspective what CJ Stroud has been doing during his first season in the NFL. He threw for 274 yards, three touchdowns, and had a 157.2 passer rating. 

Per The Athletic, his three first-half touchdown passes joined Brock Purdy, Dak Prescott and Sammy Baugh as the only players in NFL history to throw three touchdowns in their playoff debut. 

Pretty impressive? Don’t worry, there’s more:

• Head coach DeMeco Ryans and Stroud became the third rookie coach-quarterback duo since 1950 to win a playoff game.

• On Saturday, Stroud became the youngest quarterback in NFL history to win a playoff game.

• He led the Texans to their largest margin of victory in a playoff game in team history.

We are not even scratching the surface on what this career is going to look like — making history with this team is just becoming inevitable because they have a quarterback like Stroud paired with (my Coach of the Year) DeMeco Ryans.

Stroud’s 2023 season has been nothing short of impressive, but you already knew that.

He’s elevating those around him and not household names either (yet), but players like Tank Dell, Nico Collins, and Noah Brown. He’s got the arm strength that makes everyone question how the Panthers could trade up to the No. 1 overall pick and make the mistake of taking someone not named CJ Stroud. He gets compared to Patrick Mahomes when he takes those deep shots downfield.   

Houston now has the chance for the first time in franchise history to make the AFC Championship.

🌴 Yeah, here we go… to Cancun

Just to be transparent: I wrote this blurb at halftime of the Packers vs. Cowboys game because I did not think there was any coming back from the hole that they dug themselves into.

AND WE WERE CORRECT.

It was the largest playoff halftime deficit in Cowboys history. Dallas became the first team to lose to a No. 7 seed in the playoffs since the NFL expanded the postseason bracket. This was the 13th straight postseason appearance in which Dallas failed to reach the Conference Championship game — extending their own record for the longest such streak in NFL history.

Yikes.

What are the repercussions of this game? Have we seen the final game for head coach Mike McCarthy, maybe even defensive coordinator Dan Quinn? What are the Cowboys going to do with Dak Prescott? We have a full offseason to dissect, but something has to give here. 

On the bright side, Jordan Love looked phenomenal. He completed 16-of-20 passes for 272 yards, three touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating.

Oh yeah, and why not make history in the process (but the good kind, sorry Dallas) — Love is the first quarterback in NFL history with a perfect passer rating in a playoff debut.