Tom Brady is a perfect 6-and-0 in his career against the Cowboys, but nobody knows how Sunday Night Football will unfold. Still, if we learned anything from last season, the Cowboys have plenty they did and didn’t do well; this team is a bit different from a season ago, but the keys to beating Tampa should fall into the lap of Dallas.
Most of these keys could carry over weekly, which would benefit them. Still, some are solely based on the personnel they are lining up against that week, and as we all know, they are playing Tom Brady for the second year in a row on opening night, so what can Dallas do to make this game just as good as last season?
The first key to beating the Bucs Sunday is pressure. The Tampa OL is banged up; starting Pro Bowl center Ryan Jenson and left guard Aaron Stinnie are both out due to injury. The starting offensive tackles for Tampa are still excellent, but as we Cowboy fans know, these injuries are sometimes hard to overcome. The Cowboys’ defense is outstanding. Guys like Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, Dorance Armstrong, and Sam Williams must be ready to create havoc. These four players should lead the way for the Dallas defense regarding sacks. Make Brady feel the pressure early and often; Dan Quinn can not let him settle in because if they do, it might be a long night for the Cowboys, take advantage of the weakness with your strength.
Tom Brady is 6-0 vs the #Cowboys, the most wins without a loss vs Dallas by a starting QB all-time. If the #Bucs win Sunday, he joins Randall Cunningham (8 straight from 1987-92) and Frank Ryan (7 from 1963-66) as the only starting QBs to defeat the Cowboys in 7 straight starts.
— Ed Werder (@WerderEdNFL) September 6, 2022
One of the keys to every week, not just against Tampa, is penalties. It will be on the list until we see it corrected and not change the outcome of football games. Be disciplined, and don’t give away free yards. Head coach Mike McCarthy said it himself back in March – the number one priority for the Cowboys this offseason was cleaning up the penalties. Who is to blame for all of those a season ago? Fourteen total flags in a playoff game, tying the playoff record in NFL history, is not ideal. As priority number one all offseason, you have to think McCarthy has been harping this on the players repeatedly. I mentioned the preseason start and all the flags they accumulated, but it was nothing but backups, and the following week they cut those in half and were not touched on again. Forty-seven of the Cowboys’ 127 from a season ago were pre-snap; those should be a more straightforward fix than others. Let’s hope they get it figured out.
Mike McCarthy on Cowboys’ top offseason priorities:
1. Clean up penalties
2. Being better at handling adversity
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) March 1, 2022
Winning the turnover battle is tricky, and I say that because I genuinely believe the Cowboys only had a chance late in the game a season ago because they won the turnover battle and time of possession. If they can duplicate those on Sunday, I think they give themselves another great chance to win the game. Dallas only had 60 rushing yards in their game last year and had the ball for almost ten more minutes, I know they have a problem on the OL, but I think they rush for close to 100 and win the time of possession. The turnover battle is a coin flip. The Cowboys forced two fumbles and two interceptions a year ago and only gave it away once, and still couldn’t make one final stop to win the game after leading late into the 4th quarter.
There are plenty I did not hit on that will make an impact in this game, but these are just a few I see that could help the Cowboys hang around and have another chance at the end of the game to beat a Tom Brady-led team finally.
A high priority should be to start fast too! The Cowboys seem to always start slow in big games then have to catch up like last year against these same Buccaneers!
One thing is if we can have a few calls go our way ! We should have won last year but got hosed late in the game!
Certainly getting a call here and there would’ve been helpful, but the thing that stands out in last year’s game against Tampa was Zeurlien missing makeable kicks. I think this upcoming game could be similar to last year except instead of Zeurlien blowing kicks, it will be Maher.
The defense primarily returning every single starter from last year that was vital and this being the second season under Dan Quinn helps. They should be really use to the system and DQ knows exactly what he has to work with now so he can unleash a world of pain
I believe the key to a great Cowboys won is to HAMMER Tom Brady from their opening possession to their last possession. The officials will show favoritism to Tampa and Brady! Knowing that, I think you still hit him hard and often. He’s not a 25 or 26 year old anymore. Make him realize that fact!!! Not just Dallas, but every team that plays Tampa should get after his ass! Since he doesn’t seem to know when to say enough is enough, perhaps if he’s limping around for a substantial amount of time, he’ll finally go home and stay there, waiting for the HOF to call him.
It is not how many good plays you make that determines if you win or lose the game. It is how many bad plays that you don,t make .