Tampa Bay Defending Champs escape with a rousing win opener. 31-29

Photo by bucswire.usatoday.com

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers played one mess of a game but escaped with a win of 31-29 over the Dallas Cowboys in the season’s opener, thanks to Ryan Succop’s 36-yard field goal that brought Tampa Bay to victory.

On Thursday, September 9th, the defending Super Bowl champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers returned to Raymond James Stadium to host the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL’s season opener. With an eight-game winning streak, coming straight into the new season as favorites isn’t a far stretch for the Buccaneers. The Cowboys came into Thursday night a bit on a high horse themselves as their star quarterback Dak Prescott returned to the field and hasn’t played since October of last year after a devastating ankle injury as well as a shoulder injury. Except for one downside for Dallas was that Pro guard Zach Martin had to sit out this time due to COVID-19 protocols as he was put on the list earlier that week.

It was quite the game at Raymond James Stadium as no one thought this game would turn out the way that it would. With the Buccaneers being the Super Bowl champs, and the Dallas Cowboys coming into the season without any preseason wins, it would seem that the game would be a no-brainer as to which team would take the victory. After the opening, Dallas won the coin toss and deferred, and the Buccaneer’s offense would get their shot in the first game of the NFL season.

At opening kickoff, Tom Brady and the Buccaneer offense took the field and Leonard Fournette got back-to-back carries starting the drive and picked up five and three yards to set up an early 3rd and 2. Only on their third down, Tom Brady missed Chris Godwin where Bradley Pinion punt 65 yards over to Dallas, giving the Cowboys an opportunity to jump-start the offense-which they did. It looked like the Cowboys were going to enter in the season with some points, except an underthrown pass to CeeDee Lamb and a false start on the 3rd and 10 led to a punt from Bryan Anger.

Ronald Jones II started off the drive with a five-yard run on his own and Mike Evans caught a 10-yard pass on the next play, giving the Buccaneers their first down. Brady found Rob Gronkowski for a 20-yard gain and then Antonio Brown for a 29-yard pass down the sideline on the right to get the Buccaneers moving into the Dallas Cowboy territory. Moving ahead to another completion made by Antonio Bown moved the Buccaneers into the red zone with Brady finding Godwin just a couple of plays later for an eight-yard completion that gave the Buccaneers a 1st and goal. Brady then hit Godwin on the next play for the team’s first touchdown, giving them 6-0. Ryan Succop then led the Bucs with a PAT, 7-0 after a nine-play 94-yard drive.

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Meanwhile, the Cowboys threw out every play they had—which paid off. Dak Prescott completed seven passes for 75-yards. Even one that made the highlight reel which was when he made a 22-yard touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb. The Cowboys picked up the pace and quarterback Prescott put up six points, then Greg Zuerlein tied the game 7-7 in the first quarter. The Bucc’s had a shot at another chance to put points up by Jones and Brown, but one incomplete pass and a ball drop later brought the end to the first quarter.

Going into the second quarter, Brady and the Tampa Bay offense faced off with a quick 3rd and 3 but Brady found Godwin for a 19-yard gain down the field to 43 to Dallas. He then found Godwin again to set up a 1st and goal from the Cowboys 7 and then Fournette carried the ball five yards to the Cowboys 2. Brady then hit Gronk on the next play they executed which gave the Bucc’s a 13-7 lead. Succop hit the PAT and made it 14-7 close to the end of the first half of the game.

Right off the bat, Dak Prescott stood tall when Tampa’s defense tried to force the Dallas offense into a 3rd and 8. That’s when Prescott found Wilson for the first down and then moved in to find Cooper after just two more plays into the end zone, bringing the score 14-13. The Cowboys would’ve put more points up but Zuerlein missed the PAT. Tampa’s defense held their ground and forced another field goal attempt from Zuerlein. He hit the 31-yard this time and gave the Cowboys a 16-14 lead. Which was something the audience didn’t see coming from Dallas’s end.

Photo by Carmen Vitali-Twitter

But something as a Cowboys lead didn’t matter with Tom Brady and Antonio Brown on the field. Brady hit Brown for a 47-yard touchdown a few plays later to put the Buccs up at 20-16. Then after Succop’s PAT went through giving Tampa Bay a 21-16 lead with only a few minutes left in the first half. Tampa Bay had a chance to put more points on the board when Zuerlein missed yet another field goal, but the Bucc’s couldn’t get ahold of the situation at hand and the game went into halftime when Brady tried to attempt a last-second Hail Marry.

Coming into the third quarter, the Dallas Cowboys weren’t playing around. They took the lead at the beginning of the quarter when Prescott converted two-thirds down and 5-of-6 passes for 46-yards, eventually leading Zuerlein to make the game 21-19. On top of that, the Bucc’s offense couldn’t get anything up their sleeve so that left Dallas's offense in the perfect position to try and take the lead. But before the Cowboys could try and redeem themselves, the Bucs offense forced an interception on the first down of the referenced drive looking into taking the lead and snuffing the Cowboy’s chance to put points ahead.

It didn’t take long for the Tampa Bay Buccaneer’s Tom Brady to hit Gonk for an 11-yard touchdown and Succop hit the PAT yet again and put the Bucc’s up to 28-19.

Then comes Ezekiel Elliott starting Dallas’ drive with a 13-yard run. Dallas then proceeded to pass on six of the nine plays that ended results of being a 21-yard touchdown pass to Cooper from Prescott. The drive was keyed by a two-yard scramble by Prescott that was under pressure on 1st and 10 that led to a 2nd and 8.

In the fourth quarter of the game, Gronk had caught a one-handed catch, Godwin with the nine-yard reception, and Antonio Brown with a six-yard rush lead that led to a beautiful seven-yard reception by Fournette gave the Bucc’s a 1st and 10. Unfortunately for the Bucc’s Godwin fumbled the ball as he tried to get into the end zone, and Jourdan Lewis recovered the fumble and Dallas took over as its own with only 5:04 left in the season opener with the score being 26-28.

Things quickly sped up to pace and the Cowboys did something that no one thought they’d do-took the lead! It looked as if the Buccaneers had the Cowboys, but then the tide quickly turned when Zuerlein drilled a 48-yard field goal and put the Cowboys in the lead at 29-28 with just barley a minute and a half left in the game. The final moments were killer and Cowboys fans couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

However, Tampa Bay has a player called Tom Brady and we all know what he’s capable of. No way was the Super Bowl star quarterback going to allow a lead like this. He completed 62-yard pass to set up the Bucc’s with a chance to win the game with a 36-yard field goal attempt. And as you’d expect, Succop aimed it through and won the game with the score final being 31-29, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers started off their NFL season with a record of 1-0.