Cowboys vs Buccaneers Week 1: history, key players, projection
By Riley Donald
The NFL season is finally upon us. Week 1 has officially arrived and things get underway this Sunday after what felt like an eternity of waiting since the Dallas Cowboys fell to the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs last season.
Last year, the Cowboys opened up the NFL schedule with a season-opening road trip to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. While it isn’t the first game of the NFL season this time around, the Cowboys play host to the Bucs this year on Sunday Night football in primetime action.
The Cowboys seem to have more question marks than answers right now as they sort out injuries along the offensive side of the ball. The Bucs also had their own questions as future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady stepped away from the team for an extended period of time.
Before Sunday night gets here, let’s get into this matchup. We will take a look at the history, a little bit of a weather outlook for how that could factor in, a couple of players that could be an X-factor, and end it with a projection of how this game shakes out.
Cowboys vs Buccaneers: Week 1 History, key matchups, and prediction
Cowboys vs Buccaneers : Matchup History
All-time Record: 15-5 in favor of the Cowboys (2-0 playoff record in favor of Dallas)
Most recent result: Tampa Bay 31, Dallas 29 on September 9, 2021
The most recent result of this matchup is still rather fresh in the minds of many Cowboys fans. Last year, these two teams battled for four quarters.. Dallas took a late 29-28 lead before Tom Brady engineered another late game comeback win to send Dallas home 0-1.
Dak Prescott can throw it on the Bucs as well as he posted a stat line of 401 yards and three touchdowns. There is no ignoring Brady’s 379 yards and four touchdowns. This thing was a shootout with extremely high level quarterback play.
While Dallas has a 15-5 lead, they are just 4-5 against the Bucs since 2000. A large chunk of these wins come from an 8-0 run the Cowboys had to start off the matchup prior to the Bucs ever knocking off the Cowboys.