PackersCowboys
40 games since 1960. Last meeting September 28, 2025: the Packers tied 40-40 on the road.
Record updated October 6, 2026. Every number on this page is computed from the game log.
Tap an answer. The factoid under it is the kind of thing the book puts under every one of its 200 questions.
Question 1
What was the final score of the Ice Bowl between the Packers and the Cowboys?
The Packers trailed the Cowboys 14 – 17 with less than 5 minutes remaining. Starting from their 32-yard line, facing -50 °F wind chills, they drove to the Cowboy’s 1 yard line. After two failed run attempts and seconds left on the board, Lombardi & Starr decided on a QB sneak. Starr called a fullback wedge in the huddle, but never told his teammates he intended to keep it and run it himself. Following Jerry Kramer and Ken Bowman’s double-team, Starr lunged in to take the lead, for a final score of 21 – 17.
Question 2
Which Packers quarterback has the highest passer rating in a playoff game?
Jordan Love holds the record for the highest single-game playoff passer rating by a Packers quarterback, achieving a 157.2 passer rating against the Cowboys in Dallas in the Wildcard game on January 14, 2024. He had a perfect rating at one point but unfortunately threw one last incomplete pass in garbage time.
This isn’t your typical NFL rivalry. The teams play in different divisions and only meet once every three years during the regular season. But when they do meet – especially in the playoffs – something memorable usually happens.
The Packers dominated the 1960s under Vince Lombardi. The Cowboys owned the 1990s with Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin. The Packers struck back in the 2010s behind Aaron Rodgers. Each era produced championship teams and playoff heartbreak.
Before they became rivals, Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry worked together. From 1954 to 1958, they served as coordinators for the New York Giants. Lombardi ran the offense. Landry created the 4-3 defense that teams still use today.
When the Cowboys joined the NFL in 1960, Landry became their first head coach. Lombardi was already building a dynasty in Green Bay. The teacher-student dynamic was clear—Lombardi’s Packers beat Landry’s Cowboys in all five of their meetings.
The stakes couldn’t have been higher on January 1, 1967, at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The winner would play in the first Super Bowl.
Green Bay jumped ahead 14-0 before Dallas touched the ball. Bart Starr threw a touchdown to Elijah Pitts, then Cowboys returner Mel Renfro fumbled the kickoff. Jim Grabowski scooped it up for another Packers score.
Dallas fought back. Don Meredith led the Cowboys to a 14-14 tie by the end of the first quarter. The teams traded scores all game. Starr threw four touchdown passes, finishing with 304 yards.
With Dallas trailing 34-27, Meredith drove the Cowboys to the Packers’ 2-yard line with under two minutes left. They had four chances from inside the 5. On fourth down, Packers linebacker Dave Robinson pressured Meredith, forcing a desperation throw. Tom Brown intercepted it in the end zone.
Final score: Packers 34, Cowboys 27. Green Bay went on to win Super Bowl I.
The temperature at Lambeau Field was -13°F with wind chills between -36°F and -48°F. The turf heating system failed, turning the field into ice. Referees’ whistles froze to their lips. One fan died from exposure.
Despite the conditions, both teams played. The Packers led 14-0 after Bart Starr threw two touchdown passes to Boyd Dowler. Dallas cut it to 14-10 by halftime after George Andrie returned a fumble for a touchdown.
Early in the fourth quarter, Cowboys halfback Dan Reeves threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Lance Rentzel. Dallas led 17-14.
The Packers got the ball back with 4:50 left. Starr methodically moved them down the field. With 16 seconds remaining and no timeouts, Green Bay faced third-and-goal from inside the 1-yard line.
Two running plays had failed on the ice. Starr called timeout and talked to Lombardi. A field goal would send the game to overtime. Instead, Starr suggested a quarterback sneak.
Starr took the snap and followed blocks by Jerry Kramer and Ken Bowman into the end zone. The Packers won 21-17 and advanced to Super Bowl II.
From 1991 to 1996, Dallas won eight straight games against Green Bay, including three playoff victories. The Cowboys had Troy Aikman at quarterback, Emmitt Smith at running back, and Michael Irvin at receiver—they called them “The Triplets.”
Brett Favre couldn’t beat them in Dallas. The Cowboys went 9-0 against Favre’s Packers at Texas Stadium. While Green Bay was good enough to win three straight MVP awards for Favre, they couldn’t get past Dallas when it mattered most.
On January 14, 1996, the teams met for the NFC Championship at Texas Stadium. It was the third straight year Dallas eliminated Green Bay from the playoffs.
Aikman threw two first-quarter touchdowns to Michael Irvin. Green Bay answered when Favre found Robert Brooks on a 73-yard bomb. The teams traded scores all game. Green Bay led 27-24 in the third quarter.
Then Emmitt Smith took over. He capped a 90-yard drive with a touchdown run. After Larry Brown intercepted Favre, Smith scored again. He finished with 150 yards and three touchdowns.
Dallas won 38-27 and went on to win Super Bowl XXX. For Green Bay, it was another January disappointment in Texas.
Aaron Rodgers changed everything. As Green Bay’s starter, Rodgers went 8-2 against Dallas. More importantly, he was perfect in Dallas, going 3-0 at AT&T Stadium.
The psychological advantage that Dallas held in the 90s was gone. Now it was the Cowboys who couldn’t win the big games.
Down 26-3 at halftime at Jerry World, backup quarterback Matt Flynn led one of the greatest comebacks in franchise history. With Aaron Rodgers injured, Flynn threw four second-half touchdowns, sparked by Eddie Lacy’s 65-yard run to open the half.
In the 4th quarter, Sam Shields intercepted Tony Romo, setting up the go-ahead score. Tramon Williams sealed the 37-36 victory with another pick on Dallas’s final drive.
The 2014 NFC Divisional playoff at Lambeau Field gave us one of the most debated plays in NFL history.
Dallas led 21-13 in the third quarter. Rodgers, playing on a bad calf, rallied the Packers to a 26-21 lead with 9:10 left.
On fourth-and-2 from the Green Bay 32-yard line with 4:42 remaining, Tony Romo threw deep to Dez Bryant. Bryant caught the ball, took two steps, and lunged for the goal line. The officials ruled it a catch at the 1-yard line.
Mike McCarthy challenged. After review, referee Gene Steratore reversed the call. The ball hit the ground as Bryant went down, and he briefly lost control. By the rules at the time, it wasn’t a catch.
Green Bay won 26-21. The controversy led to the NFL completely rewriting its catch rules.
Two years later, they met again in the playoffs at AT&T Stadium. The top-seeded Cowboys faced the Packers with rookie sensations Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott.
Green Bay led 21-3 early. Dallas fought back to tie it 28-28. The teams traded field goals. Dan Bailey’s 52-yarder tied it 31-31 with 35 seconds left.
That was too much time for Rodgers. From his own 25, he moved the Packers to midfield. Then Dallas sacked him, leaving third-and-20 from the 32 with 12 seconds left.
Rodgers rolled left and threw across his body. Jared Cook made an incredible sideline catch, dragging his toes inbounds for 36 yards. Mason Crosby kicked the game-winning 51-yard field goal as time expired.
Green Bay won 34-31. Rodgers had done it again in Dallas.
In 2020, Dallas hired Mike McCarthy as head coach—the same man who coached Green Bay to a Super Bowl and through both controversial playoff wins over Dallas.
McCarthy’s first game back at Lambeau came in November 2022. The Cowboys blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead and lost 31-28 in overtime.
The seventh-seeded Packers visited the second-seeded Cowboys in the wild-card round. Dallas was heavily favored at home.
Jordan Love, in his first playoff game as Green Bay’s starter, took apart the Dallas defense. The Packers led 27-0 before the Cowboys scored. They led by 32 points in the fourth quarter.
Green Bay won 48-32, becoming the first seventh seed to win a road playoff game. The victory extended Green Bay’s perfect record against Dallas at AT&T Stadium to 5-0, including two playoff wins.
On August 28, 2025, the Dallas Cowboys traded All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers in one of the most shocking moves in NFL history. The trade occurred just one week before the 2025 regular season opener.
Cowboys Received:
Packers Received:
Parsons’ new deal made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time, at $47 million per year average. This represents a 34% increase over the previous record and surpassed T.J. Watt’s recent $41 million deal.
The contract includes:
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones explained the trade decision in a 46-minute press conference:
“This was a move to get us successful in the playoffs. This was a move to be better on defense, stopping the run. This was a move to, if we get behind, not be run on.”
Jones compared the trade to the 1989 Herschel Walker trade that helped build the Cowboys’ 1990s Super Bowl teams. A source close to Jones noted that Parsons “does not” stop the run, and the Cowboys needed to address “mission critical” defensive needs.
In four seasons with Dallas:
For Cowboys
For Packers
Parsons faced his former team on September 28, 2025 when the Packers visited Dallas for Sunday Night Football. This highly anticipated matchup occurred just a few weeks after trading Parsons to Green Bay.
Although Parsons did get one sack on his former teammate Dak Prescott, the Packers tied the Cowboys in overtime 40-40. That game ended with the second-most points ever scored in an NFL tie.
This trade represents only the second time in the Jerry Jones era that Dallas has traded a player coming off a Pro Bowl season (the first was safety Thomas Everett in 1994). Many analysts have compared the move to the Packers’ acquisition of Reggie White in 1993, which helped lead to a Super Bowl championship.
The trade concludes a relationship that seemed destined to last Parsons’ entire career, as he had previously stated he wanted to be a “Cowboy for life.”
The Packers and Cowboys don’t play often, but when they do, it matters. Nine playoff meetings. Two NFL Championship Games, including the Ice Bowl. Controversial catches. Last-second field goals. Three distinct eras of dominance.
Unlike most NFL rivalries, this one isn’t about geography or playing twice a year. It’s about championships. It’s about two of the league’s most successful franchises repeatedly meeting when everything is on the line.
The names tell the story: Lombardi and Landry. Starr and Meredith. Aikman and Favre. Rodgers and Romo. Now Love and Prescott.
From the Ice Bowl to “Dez Caught It” to AT&T Stadium becoming Green Bay’s second home, this rivalry has produced moments that define not just these franchises, but the NFL itself.
40 games since 1960, newest first. Home record 12-5-0, away 10-12-1.
| Date | Result | Score | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 28, 2025 | Tie | 40-40 | Away | |
| Jan 14, 2024 | Win | 48-32 | Away | Postseason |
| Nov 13, 2022 | Win | 31-28 | Lambeau | Overtime |
| Oct 6, 2019 | Win | 34-24 | Away | |
| Oct 8, 2017 | Win | 35-31 | Away | |
| Jan 15, 2017 | Win | 34-31 | Away | Postseason |
| Oct 16, 2016 | Loss | 16-30 | Lambeau | |
| Dec 13, 2015 | Win | 28-7 | Lambeau | |
| Jan 11, 2015 | Win | 26-21 | Lambeau | Postseason |
| Dec 15, 2013 | Win | 37-36 | Away | |
| Nov 7, 2010 | Win | 45-7 | Lambeau | |
| Nov 15, 2009 | Win | 17-7 | Lambeau | |
| Sep 21, 2008 | Loss | 16-27 | Lambeau | |
| Nov 29, 2007 | Loss | 27-37 | Away | |
| Oct 24, 2004 | Win | 41-20 | Lambeau | |
| Nov 14, 1999 | Loss | 13-27 | Away | |
| Nov 23, 1997 | Win | 45-17 | Lambeau | |
| Nov 18, 1996 | Loss | 6-21 | Away | |
| Jan 14, 1996 | Loss | 27-38 | Away | Postseason |
| Oct 8, 1995 | Loss | 24-34 | Away | |
| Jan 8, 1995 | Loss | 9-35 | Away | Postseason |
| Nov 24, 1994 | Loss | 31-42 | Away | |
| Jan 16, 1994 | Loss | 17-27 | Away | Postseason |
| Oct 3, 1993 | Loss | 14-36 | Away | |
| Oct 6, 1991 | Loss | 17-20 | Lambeau | |
| Dec 24, 1989 | Win | 20-10 | Away | |
| Oct 8, 1989 | Win | 31-13 | Lambeau | |
| Sep 23, 1984 | Loss | 6-20 | Away | |
| Jan 16, 1983 | Loss | 26-37 | Away | Postseason |
| Sep 28, 1980 | Loss | 7-28 | Lambeau | |
| Nov 12, 1978 | Loss | 14-42 | Lambeau | |
| Oct 19, 1975 | Win | 19-17 | Away | |
| Oct 1, 1972 | Win | 16-13 | Lambeau | |
| Nov 26, 1970 | Loss | 3-16 | Away | |
| Oct 28, 1968 | Win | 28-17 | Away | |
| Dec 31, 1967 | Win | 21-17 | Lambeau | Postseason |
| Jan 1, 1967 | Win | 34-27 | Away | Postseason |
| Oct 24, 1965 | Win | 13-3 | Lambeau | |
| Nov 29, 1964 | Win | 45-21 | Away | |
| Nov 13, 1960 | Win | 41-7 | Lambeau |
No, Dallas is 0-2 in playoff games at Lambeau Field, losing in 1967 (Ice Bowl) and 2014 (Dez game).
By the NFL rules at the time, it wasn’t a catch because Bryant didn’t maintain control through the process of going to the ground. The NFL later changed this rule.
22–17–1 (Packers – Cowboys)
The Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys have played 40 games since 1960, with the Packers winning 22 games & the Cowboys winning 17.
Players who have notably played for both the Cowboys and the Packers include:
