Tom Brady for a while: perfect record in duels against the Cowboys.
Los Tampa Bay Buccaneers they had one of the most impressive debuts in the NFL last week beating the Cowboys 19-3 and were the only team in the NFL not to allow a touchdown.
Tom Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 19-3 win over the Dallas Cowboys in his NFL Week One appearance. The 45-year-old veteran quarterback, who passed for 212 yards, had a touchdown and was intercepted once; extended his perfect record in duels against the Cowboys to seven wins.
The first quarter featured an exchange of field goals, one by Brett Maher for Dallas and two by Ryan Succop for the Bucs, who put Tampa Bay ahead 6-3.
Starting in the second quarter, the Cowboys defense kept Tom Brady at bay thanks to the pair of sacks that Micah Parsons got inside the 15-yard line, a linebacker who during the week said that the Bucs quarterback wanted to crush them like cockroaches.
The considered best player in the NFL was the least sacked quarterback in 2021, just 22 times. He was caught by Parsons, sixth in sacks in 2021, inside the Dallas 15-yard line both times, keeping Tampa Bay from reaching the end zone; Of the two field goals Succop attempted, he only connected one to extend a 9-3 lead.
For this campaign the line that protects Brady lost Ali Marpet, retired; center Ryan Jensen, injured; and Alex Cappa, who left for the Bengals. His replacements Robert Hainsey, Luke Goedeke and Shaq Mason struggled to control the home defense. On the final drive of the second quarter, the Buccaneers dragged the Dallas defense 61 yards, but again failed to score six and stretched the lead to 12-3 on another halftime field goal. For the Cowboys, their quarterback, Dak Prescott, was not fine in the first half.
He only made 6 of 16 passes, the second-lowest percentage in his career, and had an interception. The Lone Star team suffered the loss of their guard Connor McGovern, who did not return for the second half. After the break Dallas got worse; Prescott had a couple of sacks and went 15 more minutes without scoring.
The burden of last season, when the Cowboys were the most punished team, was replicated in this duel in which they accumulated 10 penalties that cost them 73 yards. In addition, his defense accused fatigue due to the high pressure generated in the duel; Tom Brady took advantage of it to connect a touchdown delivery with Mike Evans, which made it 19-3.
In the last period Prescott suffered a blow to the thumb of his right hand and left the field. In the end he had 134 yards, an interception and completed 14 of 29 passes.
