Packers win ugly over Cowboys, but nothing is pretty for Green Bay

For most of Aaron Rodgers’ career, the Green Bay Packers have been a fun team to watch.

Rodgers has been at an MVP level for years, pretty much picking and choosing which receivers would catch touchdowns and jump in the stands. For so long it just looked easy.

The Packers aren’t that team anymore, at least not this season with an ineffective Randall Cobb and Jordy Nelson done for the year. It’s the type of team that can punt five straight times to start the second half against a poor Dallas Cowboys team. However, it’s the kind of team that more often than not has won games.

Green Bay pulled off another ugly win against the Cowboys to improve to 9-4. With Green Bay nursing a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter, James Starks’ run up the middle for a 30-yard touchdown to finally put a brutal game out of its misery (sorry, national TV audience). Eddie Lacy piled on another touchdown with less than three minutes left as the Packers pulled away for a 28-7 victory.

The Cowboys are now done … probably. In the NFC East, you never know. But Dallas is 4-9, two games behind Washington and Philadelphia in the division with three to play. We’ll assume this is the last we have to worry about the Cowboys in the 2015 season.

The Packers haven’t blown anyone away, but they’re winning. In the rain on Sunday, it was a ground game for the Packers. They had more than 200 rushing yards as a team for the first time since 2009 and their 230 rushing yards was Green Bay’s most in a game since the 2003 season finale against Denver, according to Fox’s broadcast. Starks and Lacy eventually wore out the Cowboys on the ground.

Maybe this is how the Packers will win games now. They don’t have receivers who can get open for Rodgers, and they get very little out of the tight end position. With Lacy apparently back on track, after a 124-yard game in the start on Sunday, maybe the Packers ride him and Starks, and Rodgers plays an efficient game with a few big plays sprinkled in. Rodgers had just 218 yards passing, and he hasn’t had 300 passing yards in a win since Sept. 28. The Packers haven’t been dominant since very early in the season — it’s not like the Hail Mary win at the Detroit Lions was impressive, it was just a great play at the end.

The Packers haven’t really looked like a championship contender in a while. But they keep winning games and now are back in sole possession of first place in the NFC North. That’s all that matters for now. Perhaps they can figure out a new championship formula as they go along.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab