Buccaneers Escape Scare in Opener Against Cowboys
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers earned a hard-fought win over the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night as they opened the NFL season with a 31-29 win. The Cowboys made a field goal to take the lead with under two minutes left in the game, but that was too much time for Tom Brady as he marched his team down and got them into field goal range. The Cowboys were able to cover the spread, and the game easily hit the over.
Despite having a 4-1 edge in the turnover battle the Cowboys were unable to capitalize on the mistakes. Tampa Bay was also flagged 11 times for 406 yards, but still, that was not enough to swing the game in Dallas’ favor. The Buccaneers won this game in the red zone as they were outstanding at getting the ball into the end zone when they had the ball and were great at keeping the Cowboys out of the end zone on defense. Tampa Bay was 3-of-5 in the red zone, while Dallas was just 1-of-4.
The Return of Dak Prescott
The return of Dak Prescott was a big headline for the game as he is coming off of a knee injury that held him out most of last season. It didn’t seem like he missed a beat as he threw for 403 yards and was 42-of-58 from the pocket. He threw three touchdown passes and only one interception, which came on a pass that should have been caught by his wideout.
Tom Brady was back to his old ways as he was highly efficient and was able to spread the ball around to multiple players. Tampa Bay had five drops in the game, and one led to an interception. Brady’s other interception was thrown on a hail mary to end the first half. He was 32-of-50 and threw for 379 yards. If this game is any indicator, Brady is not slowing down at all.
Tom Brady’s favorite target was Rob Gronkowski, unsurprisingly. He caught eight passes for 90 yards and two touchdowns in the contests. Brady and Gronkowski moved into sole possession of third place for the most regular-season touchdown connections in history.
Tampa Bay’s defense was strong all night long, holding Ezekiel Elliott to just 33 rushing yards on 11 carries. Doing this made Dallas throw the ball all night long, and even though Prescott put up big numbers it did not matter in the end. What was a weakness at times for Tampa Bay last year looks like it could now be a very good strength, especially with the pass rush that they showed throughout the night.
With Tampa Bay getting off to a big win tonight, they have started the wheels in motion towards another Super Bowl win. I would not count out the Cowboys because, despite the loss, they looked really good in all facets of the game. The cowboys could be pretty solid contenders for a place in the Super Bowl this year and should be able to win a very winnable division.
