Cowboys Week 1 studs and duds: Dak Prescott injured in brutal loss

This was easily one of the least productive offseasons in Dallas Cowboys history and it only got worse when the regular season started. After scoring a field goal on their opening drive against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the ‘Boys failed to score again the rest of the night and dropped the opener at home by a score of 19-3.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, they lost Dak Prescott late in the game when his hand was hit by Shaq Barrett. Once the game was over, it was revealed he needed surgery and would miss “several weeks.” Let’s look back over the frustrating loss and see who stood out for Dallas.

Cowboys studs and duds from Week 1 loss to Tampa Bay Bucs

Stud: Dalton Schultz, TE

The wide receivers in Dallas were the strength of the team in 2021, but that’s no longer the case. Dallas traded Amari Cooper to Cleveland and didn’t retain Cedrick Wilson. Throw in the fact that Michael Gallup isn’t back from a torn ACL and James Washington suffered a fractured foot and it became an even larger issue.

That was seen from the start against Tampa Bay, but they did at least have one player step up as tight end Dalton Schultz caught seven passes on nine targets for 62 yards. Schultz continued to be a bright spot in this offense and on Sunday night, he was one of the few.

Dud: Terence Steele, RT

When Dallas released La’el Collins, they made Terence Steele the starter. He responded by getting called for four penalties in Week 1, resulting in an already bad offense having to continually move in the wrong direction.

The only solace to take from this is the fact that the team as a whole was again terrible with discipline, so at least Steele wasn’t alone. The Cowboys had 10 accepted penalties (granted Steele was good for 40 percent of the flags) which cost them 73 yards. Not great.

Stud: Micah Parsons, LB

The reigning DROY respects the GOAT but also wanted to take him down in likely his last opportunity. After just missing out on recording a sack on Tom Brady, Micah Parsons made sure not to miss on the next play. With the Bucs driving and facing a third-and-five from the Dallas eight-yard line, Parsons blew past Donovan Smith to sack Brady.

Instead of going up 13-3, Tampa had to settle for another field goal and the score stayed 6-3 with Ryan Succop missing the short field goal.

Parsons apparently enjoyed sacking Brady on third down so much that he did it again on the very next drive. This time, it was a third-and-three and Parsons forced another field goal to keep the Cowboys in striking distance. Of course, the offense never got back into it, but Parsons did all he could to help in this one.

Dud: CeeDee Lamb, WR

Dallas had a couple of drives in a row ruined by the one offensive player they needed the most in this one. CeeDee Lamb was not only supposed to replace Amari Cooper but also help fill the void left by Michael Gallup and James Washington who were both injured.

The first mistake was on a third-and-four while trailing 6-3. Prescott’s pass was a little behind Lamb but the ball hit him in the hands, and he was still unable to bring it in. Dallas had to punt but a huge sack from Parsons led to a missed field goal and the Cowboys offense had a shot at redemption — as did Lamb.

Prescott went to No. 88 who caught a 20-yard pass, but it was nullified due to him being flagged for a blatant offensive pass interference. That led to a first-and-20 and Prescott ended up throwing a pick on third-down as he was pressing to make something good happen.

Lamb finished with 29 yards on two receptions, which was a huge reason for the offensive struggles. He needed to be a lot better than he was.

Stud: Ezekiel Elliott, RB

When Dallas lost to Tampa Bay last season, a huge problem was Ezekiel Elliott being unable to get the ground game on track. This time, that wasn’t the case.

Elliott had 20 yards on four attempts in their first drive, which led to a field goal. From there, he had just six rushes the rest of the game. He finished with 52 yards on 10 attempts and with the game being close for much of the night, it made no sense that he didn’t get the ball more.

Dallas has a history of handling the ground game the exact opposite of how they should. When it’s not working, they keep pounding it. When it is working, they get cute and lose eight yards on reverse plays or start dialing up passing plays.

That was the case on Sunday night as they kept throwing it with Prescott — even though it wasn’t working — while refusing to let the run game go to work. Zeke actually looked the part on Sunday.

Dud: Dak Prescott, QB

The front office asked Prescott to turn water into wine and it wasn’t meant to be.

After destroying the wide receiver corps and weakening their offensive line, the powers that be in Dallas had to sit and watch as Prescott completed just 14-of-19 passes for 134 yards and a pick.

While it’s true the Jones family made a mess of things, Prescott does deserve a lot of criticism as well. He was far from good against the Bucs as he missed open receivers all night and made several bad decisions.

He was then injured late in the game and is set to miss several weeks. We don’t know how long Cooper Rush will be starting, but with the Bengals coming to town next week, this could be a disastrous start to the season. Buckle up, Cowboys fans.