The Dallas Cowboys had an awkward offseason that saw the team get rid of talent on the roster. It’s hard to win games in the NFL without a multitude of good players to help elevate the team, regardless of how much one believes in the quarterback.
Those departures were noticeable for the Cowboys as they played a lifeless 60 minutes in the season opening 19-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There simply wasn’t enough talent on the field for the Cowboys to keep up with Buccaneers, led by Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady, and the gaggle of weapons at his disposal.
The Cowboys played solid defense, which kept them in the game, but the offense left much to be desired. Kellen Moore’s unit could only muster three points, 244 yards and tried too many gadget plays that never worked. It also took just one game for the ugly penalty issue to resurface after Mike McCarthy said the team made a point to address their lack of discipline from last year.
Here are the winners and losers from pathetic loss to the Buccaneers.
Winner: Micah Parsons
(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
The Dallas defense helped keep the game close in the first half, but they couldn’t hold the Buccaneers down all night long. The biggest reason the game was within reach early was because of the play from Parsons.
With Tampa Bay driving into the red zone, the linebacker twice came through with third-down sacks to limit the Buccaneers to field-goal attempts.
The first sack from Parsons saved points as kicker Ryan Succop missed a short field goal, and his second takedown of Brady held the Buccaneers to just three. Parsons’ play helped hold the offense to just three points on two red zone trips. Without Parsons, the score could have been much worse.
Loser: Dak Prescott
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It was not a banner day for the offense led by Prescott. Throwing for just 134 yards and a completion percentage of under 50% is unlike Prescott. He often threw the ball into into triple coverage, and it was clear that Prescott wasn’t seeing the field well. Although he was intercepted just once, Prescott could have come away from the game with multiple picks.
Prescott missed some open receivers and looked rusty. The veteran signal caller didn’t play at all in the preseason and his receivers were in and out of training camp, which hurt continuity.
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