The road playoff curse is now finally over for Jerry Jones and his Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys have utterly annihilated Tom Brady and Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-14, setting up a Divisional matchup between an old archrival in the San Francisco 49ers.
This was exactly why all of the talk of the Cowboys and Mike McCarthy’s demise leading up to the game was not only premature, but frankly also just stupid.
The Dallas Cowboys were far and away the superior team to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were a notoriously awful side that would not have made the playoffs if they belonged to literally any other division in football. For some people in the media to be so callous and cocky in saying that the Cowboys were destined to “blow it” against Tom Brady and the Bucs was purely down to their own spite for Dallas and their ego’s talking for them.
Now, I obviously said a few days ago that I could see Brady’s Bucs beating the Cowboys as one can never count out the G.O.A.T. and a former Super Bowl winning roster, but I never said that they would beat America’s Team. Aside from the quarterback position (which is highly debatable), there isn’t a unit the Bucs are better than the Cowboys when you compare the two rosters.
Dallas had a better offensive line, better receivers, 20X better running backs, far better defensive front, better linebackers, better defensive backfield, better special teams, and better coaches. Yes, I’m not a fan of Mike McCarthy, but with Todd Bowles now 34-50 with a 0-1 playoff record, no one can say that he is a better coach than the former Super Bowl champion McCarthy.
Anyway, as for the game itself, it played out exactly how every single Tampa Bay Buccaneers game occurred this season.
Brady was forced to throw a whopping 66 times as he went 35/66 for 351 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT, while the Bucs running game was dreadful once again as Rachaad White had just 7 CAR for 41 yards and “Playoff” Lenny Fournette looked more like “Washed” Lenny with 5 CAR for 11 yards.
Micah Parsons (3 tackles, 1 sack, 2 TFL, 2 PD, 2 QB hits), Anthony Barr (4 tackles, 1 TFL), Dorance Armstrong Jr. (1 tackle, 2 QB hits), Leighton Van Der Esche (9 tackles 2 PD), Jonathan Hankins (2 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL, 1 QB hit), and the rest of the Cowboys were utterly dominate in how they went after Brady and the Bucs running game as they finished the game with 2 sacks, 5 TFL, 6 QB hits, and only gave up 52 rushing yards.
They could have demanded the Bucs running backs’ lunch money and they would have gotten given how passive those guys played.
I know I sound mean, but it’s honestly pathetic what the Tampa Bay Bucs running game has been this season.
It has singlehandedly been the worst rushing unit I’ve ever seen and is in dire need of a complete overhaul. The “Playoff Lenny” days of 2020 are well and truly over as the Bucs need young, fresh, and eager backs to carry the load for Brady, who looked just as washed with his nearly 70 passing attempts.
There must have been 15-20 times last night where Brady either missed a throw 2-3 yards short or overshot his receiver by 5-6 yards, which is obviously uncharacteristic of the Brady we all know. Personally, I still believe he has another 2-3 years in him and can still lead the Bucs back to the Super Bowl, but he needs to be in the perfect position to do so.
He needs a great, healthy O-Line that can block for 2-4 seconds (which the Bucs mostly have), he needs a great running game (which the Bucs obviously don’t have), and he needs 2-3 really good wide outs that can catch all types of passes (which the Bucs somewhat have).
If I was the Bucs front office and wanted to keep Brady around, I’d rank drafting/signing 2-3 good, strong, and pacey running backs, a few more O-linemen, and getting a young WR as my top priority as the days of Mike Evans (6 REC, 74 yards), Leonard Fournette, Chris Godwin (10 REC, 85 yards), and Cameron Brate (1 REC, 8 yards) picking up the slack are over.
I mean, you know it’s over when Julio Jones (7 REC, 74 yards, 1 TD), who is literally on his last legs, was the Bucs best receiver option as he had 7 REC for 74 yards and 1 TD.
Anyway, all of that matters only if Brady wants to comeback for another year, which was definitely not a certainty after his postgame press conference. I hope that wasn’t the last we see of the great TB12, but it very well could be.
As for Dallas’ offense, that was the greatest performance Dak Prescott has had as a starting quarterback. Ignoring all of the hate and noise, Prescott outperformed the G.O.A.T. at his own game as the Cowboys quarterback had 25/33 completions for 305 passing yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs, 7 CAR for 24 rushing yards, and a rushing TD.
He was simple extraordinary as he found receivers like Dalton Schultz (7 REC, 95 yards, 2 TDs), CeeDee Lamb (4 REC, 68 yards, 1 TD), and Michael Gallup (5 REC, 46 yards, 1 TD) with ease against a pretty decent Bucs secondary, which gave way for Tony Pollard (15 CAR, 77 yards) and Ezekiel Elliott (13 CAR, 27 yards) to trounce over Vita Vea (2 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL, 1 QB hit), Akiem Hicks (3 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 PD), and the rest of the Bucs vaunted defensive front for 128 total rushing yards.
Last night’s performance must have been a wet dream for Jerry Jones as he not only saw his handcrafted team beat the greatest quarterback of all time in his own stadium to break a 3-decade road playoff losing streak, but he also now knows they can compete for the Super Bowl.
Whether that will be this year is still up for debate as now the Cowboys have another date with their archfoes, the San Francisco 49ers, in the Divisional Round.
Nevertheless, even if the Cowboys are beaten by the 49ers for a second year in a row, at least their fans and management can rest assure that this team can win under the highest of pressure.
PS: How about Brett Maher, right? Missing 4 PATs in a row must be a world record and is certainly an NFL record. Sure, he might get cut now, but at least he can say he had a record-breaking performance.
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