TAMPA, Fla. – Well, take such and such and that your old bad history.
So the Cowboys weren’t supposed to win a road playoff game, zero in their last eight, and have to go back 30 years to find the last, a 30-20 NFC Championship victory in San Francisco. And I can proudly say that I witnessed that.
So the Cowboys weren’t meant to be able to win on grass fields, so many buy into that natural stuff that slows them down, taking away their speed defensively.
So the Cowboys weren’t supposed to be able to beat Tom Brady, as they lost all seven meetings with the G.O.A.T, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers laughing on the sidelines after beating them that seventh time in the season opener. I thought it was pretty funny on 9/11. Giggles everywhere.
And oh, all that pressure on Dak Prescott, so many who want to point to “his” playoff record, as well as head coach Mike McCarthy’s with the Cowboys, even though he was only here two years ago and lost his only playoff game .
All of these stories from the past eight days, plus a loss to the Washington Commanders in Game 17 of the regular season, created a troubled fanbase sacred to watch here Monday night at Raymond James Stadium in this Super Wild Card Weekend playoff- contest.
But all that malarky, that was on the Cowboys organization. Past history. Past playoff history. Thirty years in some cases of history. Those ghosts from the past.
But here, please meet your 2022 Dallas Cowboys. Dak and CeeDee and Gallup and Schultzie and Jayron and Donovan and Leighton and Trevon and Micah and D-Law, the Tylers and stuff. And chew this cigar:
Hey, the Cowboys are 1-0 to Brady in playoff history and 3-0 all-time to the Bucs in the playoffs. What do you have to say about that history?
“If you have to paint a picture of playoff football, this is about as good as I can give you in the playoffs,” McCarthy said. “You know you’re playing a champion in their house.”
For this, the Cowboys deserve a trip back to San Francisco to take on the best team in the NFL at 5:30 p.m. – now 11 straight wins. Sunday in a division round playoff game. And getting the short stick again, having to play in six days while the 49ers get eight days to prepare for this 30-year rematch from 1992, even though it was for all the NFC Championship marbles and the right to go to the Super Bowl. go in Pasadena, California.
But baby, this one, just their second playoff win in the last six, wasn’t even close. These ghosts-of-the-past busters just beat up the former 8-9 Buccaneers, winners of the NFC South, more or less by default as the rest of the division was breathing air. This 17-point spread wasn’t even close and would have been a lot worse if kicker Brett Maher hadn’t missed four of five extra-point kicks, giving new meaning to “extra” for this game at least, as the Cowboys really didn’t need those points to pound home their playoff run.
In fact the Cowboys’ 17-point win was the second-largest of six first-round games this year only San Francisco’s 18-pointer over Seattle dominated more so how fitting is that the next stop of the Cowboys on what could be their wild mystery tour.
Otherwise, this would have been a 35-14 win had it not been for the man who played 50 of 53 over 17 games and converted extra points. And remember this, the great Tom Brady and the Bucs did no offensive squat until the Cowboys built a 24-0 lead by scoring on four straight possessions and then a 31-6 lead when they scored on five of six possessions .
Actually, get this: With the Cowboys 24-0 and 3:09 to go in the third quarter, Tampa Bay had gained just 150 of its final 386 yards. That is it. And once the Cowboys went up 31-6 and pulled back defensively, they realized there probably weren’t enough possessions left for the Bucs to rally as long as the Cowboys didn’t give up big plays and turn the ball over. over, the Buccaneers piled up some yardage, but only one pointless score.
And this was so bad, but Tampa Bay started running the ball since the Cowboys forced Brady to throw 66 times. That 66 should be a cross-country route number, not the number of pass attempts.
Nice that the Bucs scored that consolation touchdown with 2:04 left, setting off a ridiculous amount of perfunctory fireworks, the pirate ship blasting away leaving their cheerleaders with these obligatory, pasted on smiles and a stadium now overrun with cowboys cheering wildly since their believers dressed in red probably wanted to drown their sorrows in the bay.
And I certainly didn’t want to see the Cowboys offensive linemen do the Landry Shift before kneeling the last two plays of the game.
Why did the Cowboys beat the Bucs, their largest playoff margin of victory and match the most playoff points scored since the Cowboys beat the Eagles 34-14 in the 2009 season playoffs?
First off, Dak Prescott was stellar, completing 25 of 33 passes for 305 yards, four TDs, no interceptions and a quarterback rating of 143.3, plus running for a score, the Cowboys’ first QB in the history of the playoffs hauling in five combined touchdowns. I think they’ll have to get rid of all those many crawlers in pregame TV shows, abuse Dak, and question whether he was a match for Brady. Oh, Brady was no match, Dak much better and the Cowboys infinitely better than the Bucs.
All that, at least for now, because with this Cowboys 2022, Prescott is 1-0 in the playoffs. So are these Cowboys, who show that they are not responsible for previous failures.
Second, the offensive line. That group played at a high level, and as veteran Zack Martin said, credit to Tyler Biadasz for recovering from a high ankle sprain suffered against Tennessee in time to get back for this game. Thanks to the selfless Connor McGovern, who was willing to give up his starting spot on left guard – after being forced to start at center in Game 17 – to play fullback, but then jumped back into left guard when Jason Peters suffered what is believed to be a season-ending, possibly career-ending hip injury at age 40. These guys served and protected Dak as if they were carrying shields on one of them.
And then there was this defense. Big kudos to defense coordinator Dan Quinn, who came up with a plan while in the corner to short out Brady in a somewhat unconventional way. Remember, no Jourdan Lewis and Anthony Brown on the corner. The candidates for the third corner spot were slim, and slimmer still when the Cowboys inactive two of them, Nahshon Wright and Trayvon Mullen.
So to counter the unavailable, Quinn usually kept rookie DaRon Bland in the left corner. He then used a combination of safeties Jayron Kearse and Israel Mukuamu as his closing corners, and look here: Kearse, although suffering from a sprained MCL, the club hopes he will recover in time to play next Sunday, ended the first interception of Brady in the end zone since 2019 and had three passes defended.
Dan Mukuamu, a little used security but former angle in college. He had broken four tackles and two passes, one of which was almost a bull’s-eye. Nearly three quarters of the way, the Cowboys had Brady out, and even after Dallas went 31-6, Brady was only 20 of 41 for 202 yards.
And late in the game, after Kearse sprains his knee and Mukuamu goes down (they hope it was just a cramp), comes the newly acquired Xavier Rhodes.
This is not to say that the Cowboys confused Brady. It’s just that the coverage, man and some zones, just covered the Buccaneers receivers, only giving up two plays of at least 20 yards and Brady averaging just over 5.3 yards per try, mediocre by any standard and certainly his.
“Not the way we wanted it to end, but we didn’t deserve it,” said Brady. “I give them a lot of credit. They played a good game – made a lot more moves than we did. Tough night.”
But a sweet night for the Cowboys, a slightly muted post-game celebration, as if a team expects to do what they did and know that the stakes are only going to get bigger going forward. But hey, it’s ahead.
“I’m just proud that the journey continues,” McCarthy would say. “That’s really where my head has always been. I get all the bells and whistles that come with the game, and history is important and so forth, but this was about the 2022 Cowboys and the Buccaneers. It’s as simple and clean as that I know it might not be sexy but here we go.
“We’re excited to be going to San Francisco.”
Leaving the ghosts of those other teams’ past playoffs behind.
Has an NFL player been paralyzed on the field?
Is Reggie Brown Still Paralyzed? Read also : Bair Mail: At Arnold Ebiketie, Lorenzo Carter and Falcons pass rush, early opportunities for Desmond Ridder.
How did Mike Utley become paralyzed? On the first play of the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Rams, an injury occurred to his sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae while blocking the Ram’s David Rocker.
Is Darryl Stingley still paralyzed?
As Stingley stretched for an errant pass, he and Tatum collided. Stingley’s helmet made contact with Tatum’s shoulder pad, compressing his spinal cord and fracturing his fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae. See the article : Roster moves: Jaguars promote Williams and Summers to active roster, demote Van Lanen and Chaisson. He eventually regained limited movement in his right arm, but spent the rest of his life paralyzed.
Who was the last NFL player to be paralyzed? When Buffalo Bills football player Kevin Everett arrived at TIRR Memorial Hermann in September 2007 after suffering a spinal cord injury on the field, he was paralyzed from the neck down.
Did Jack Tatum ever speak to Darryl Stingley? Tatum never spoke to Darryl Stingley after the injury — though he did suggest a televised reconciliation to coincide with a book release. Tatum wrote three: “They Call Me Assassin” in 1979, “They Still Call Me Assassin” in 1989, and “Final Confessions of NFL Assassin Jack Tatum” in 1996.
Is CeeDee Lamb a number 1?
1 receiver. Ahead of the 2022 campaign, there are no questions about it. To see also : Tailgate Friday: Summit Rockwood Falcon Cheerleaders take on Plaza Television. With Amari Cooper gone, Lamb is the anointed number 1 and he is delighted with the proposal.
Is CeeDee Lamb a top 10 receiver? Everything points to Lamb being a top 10 receiver in 2022. His 64 receptions (10th), 857 receiving yards (7th), and five touchdowns (T-14th) all gave him a high reputation. However, it is his 16 20-yard receptions that put him in an elite league. This number ranks him third in 20 yard receptions this season.
Where is CeeDee Lamb in the NFL? ‘Top 100 Players of 2022’: Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb | No. 95.
