Sorting the Sunday Pile Week 14 Amari Co

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Jerry Jones makes for a lovely piata on social media -- see him do some silly personnel move, fire up the joke machine, hit him hard enough and watch airplane bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue come tumbling out. Well, turns out the joke is on us. And by us I mean everyone, because when Jerry made the big, bold move to with the , we all piled on.Turns out that was shortsighted and silly, because Cooper has completely rejuvenated the Dallas offense and on Sunday provided his biggest impact game yet in the ' push for the playoffs. Cooper exposed a bad secondary, catching 10 pa ses for 217 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winning play in overtime to give the Cowboys a two-game lead in the NFC East.At the time of the deal, Dallas was floundering below .500, sitting at 3-4 and looking lost. Wins over the , and ? One of those was impre sive and only because they hung a 40-burger on the Jags defense Eric Allen Jersey . Even in Cooper's first game with the Cowboys, an embarra sing home lo s on Monday night to the that had people questioning whether or not Jason Garrett would survive the season, it looked like Dallas was going to try and force-feed their new No. 1 wideout and struggle regardle s of the personnel.But since then, Dallas has looked unstoppable, winning five straight games and taking over the NFC East. The are playing , the Eagles just got swept by the Cowboys and the Giants started too slow to make any real noise. So how big an impact has Cooper made? It's pretty staggering. His personal numbers in Oakland versus his numbers in Dallas this season are laughable.GmTargets/Rec (Catch %)Yards (Yards/Game)Yards/RecTDCooper with Raiders632/22 (68.8%)280 (46.7)12.71Cooper with Cowboys653/ Mike Quick Jersey 40 (75.5%)642 (107)16.16Cooper has more receiving yards in his last three games than he had with the Raiders all season long. He's being peppered with targets constantly and he's consistently producing. Jerry clearly knew how the Cowboys were going to use him -- he is the GM after all! -- and with a dearth of options on the Cowboys roster, in free agency and in the draft, he was willing to pay the premium Jon Gruden asked.More importantly, though, Cooper is helping the Cowboys win. He's not just putting up numbers that are pushing owners into the postseason. Cooper has made and the Cowboys offense better since he arrived. Those numbers might be more impre sive than his personal statistics. Don't get too caught up in the points per game here, or even the yards. What's been stunning to me is the third-down improvement for the Cowboys since Cooper arrived. He's their go-to guy in that respect. They're also averaging almost five additional first downs per game since he got there. Cooper has been a machine in that respect; he's responsible for a whopping 29 first downs over the last six games.Pts/GmYds/Gm1D/Gm3D ConversionsDAL O Weeks 1-720.0320.018.629/91 (31.9%)DAL O Weeks 9-1422.7348.423.248/101 (47.5%)Look at the difference here: they've seen a bump of 4.6 first downs per game on average since trading for Cooper. And Cooper has been responsible for 4.8 of them per game on average. Against the Eagles, the Cowboys had 32 first downs. Thirty-two! They were also 10 for 19 on third downs against Philadelphia.Comp %Yds/GmTD/INTPrescott Weeks 1-762.1202.48/4Prescott Weeks 9-1472.8251.86/1The Dak stats are equally as shocking. Prescott's been better, the Cowboys have had more balance and have run the ball better, teams have been le s likely to key in on and they've been substantially more efficient and effective. Do they clog up a little bit in the red zone? Yes, they do. Jason Garrett is conservative and they're willing to take field goals. It's why their point differential isn't as high despite a spike in first downs and third-down conversions. Eventually that's going to catch up to them, and it's probably going to be during a rough playoff lo s. But that's not the point here. It's to point out that, as it stands right now, Jerry Jones was right and did the smart football thing by pulling the trigger on a trade for Amari Cooper, despite giving up a first-round pick to do so. Anthony Harris Jersey At worst the Cowboys are going to give up a late-first round pick. At best it could be the No. 32 pick. They're going to make the playoffs, they're going to host a playoff game and that alone almost makes it worth nabbing Cooper.There's more to praise here for Jerry too by the way: looks like an absolute stud, is developing well, Jaylon Smith is paying dividends and the defense generally looks great. The Cowboys are a balanced team with a ton of young stars on both sides of the ball.You did this, Jerry Lane Johnson Jersey . We doubted you. You were right. ' playoff pathThere is one team just absolutely lurking on the fringe of the playoff picture, and the Packers' zombie potential should absolutely terrify everyone. To no one's surprise, looked fantastic on Sunday against the . It made too much sense; fresh off Mike McCarthy getting canned, Rodgers came out at home and shredded a terrible defense to let everyone know it wasn't his fault the Green Bay offense has been struggling for the last few months. Rodgers finished 21 of 32 for 196 yards and a pair of touchdowns. I don't think anything is nece sarily fixed in Green Bay right now, but I do think the tension release of McCarthy being gone coupled with an easy schedule down the stretch could put the Packers, now 5-7-1, in play for a postseason berth.Let's be clear: a lot has to happen. First of all, the Packers need to win out. Getting to 8-7-1 is paramount if they want to have a prayer of getting help and sneaking in as a wild card. And even that just of making it. (Also, just beat the . 9-6-1 has a great shot of getting in at this point.)The Packers will be favored in two of their final three games -- they'll certainly be a dog to the in Chicago, but will be favored over the in New York and the Lions at home. Every Bears fan will tell you Rodgers is capable of doing damage in Chicago regardle s of how the Packers look this season. Winning the NFC North is out of the question after the Bears won on Sunday night against the . The Packers can't catch them.But if the Packers win out, I believe they will jump the (who play the twice in the final three weeks), the Eagles (who have the Rams and left) and the Redskins (who are terrible). That leaves Minnesota (6-5-1) and Seattle (7-5) to jump. The aren't getting caught, not with the and Cardinals on the slate. At the very least, they're not going to go 1-3 down the stretch. 2-2 would eliminate the Packers.Can Green Bay pa s the ? Yes, but they need help. Very specifically, the Packers need the Vikings, who hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Green Jack Driscoll Jersey Bay, to lose three of their final four games. I think it's po sible. Two of those games are on the road, including the Seahawks on Monday night. One of those games, at home, is against the Bears. Chicago could be locked into a playoff spot that point, and Matt Nagy is a