Instant Analysis: Cowboys outlast Bucs in Sunday Night slugfest

After having their 11-game win streak snapped last week by the New York Giants, the Dallas Cowboys took it out on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Dallas only gave the ball up once, which led to nothing following another strong showing from the home side defence. A pass to Dez Bryant got them out of the shadow of their own end zone, and Ezekiel Elliott busted off a 42 yard run to get another 100 yard rushing game on his ledger.

Elliott, who finished with 159 rushing yards, used a prop in his celebration. Dak Prescott needs to put his worst game as an National Football League starter behind him. So for Humphries to come up like that with a big catch is remarkably impressive. He finished with eight receivers catching passes, and no one was better fed than tight end Jason Witten. “He threw the ball well”.

The Cowboys have a playoff spot secured and their magic number to clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC is two with three games to play. But questionable play-calling paired with penalties stalled the drive and forced the Cowboys to settle for a 52-yard field-goal attempt.

But young quarterbacks do best in the NFL’s final weeks when they have a stout defense to rely on.

Dallas has won five of their last six meetings with the Buccaneers, including their last game at AT&T Stadium (2012), and lead the series with a record of 13-4.

The Buccaneers however, responded with a tear of their own, scoring 17 unanswered points to re-take the lead with just over four minutes left in the 3rd quarter. “I just thought we battled, scratched, clawed throughout and certainly did enough to win the game”.

All totaled, Winston was intercepted three times, sacked four times and fumbled once.

“I don’t have a definition for it, but you’ll know it when you see it”, Jones said on Dallas sports radio on Tuesday.

David Irving had one of his best games of the season, recording a pair of sacks and hitting Jameis Winston’s arm forcing a pass high that was intercepted by Jeff Heath.

Nelson caught a touchdown pass for the third straight game in the Cardinals’ 48-41 loss to the New Orleans Saints. While cornerback Brandon Carr will draw a majority of the man-to-man coverage, Dallas will need to use its safeties and be creative if they hope to slow down Pro Football Focus’s No. 1 rated wide receiver.

Winston finished off an 81-yard march with a 10-yard bullet to Cameron Brate.

Nevertheless, the Cowboys tied up the score with a field goal after a 10-play, 58-yard drive. This team is not built for the defense to carry them, although three more takeaways and clutch play in the fourth quarter (hello, Irving) certainly helped. It’s not the dynamic offense we’ve come to expect. People are making such a big deal over two games or one game, whatever. Turns out, the rookie fourth-rounder isn’t getting benched (Garrett said as much after the Cowboys lost to the Giants in Week 14), and he reinforced that reality in a dominating performance against a very good Bucs defense. In other words, Winston had as many turnovers as Prescott had incompletions against a solid Buccaneer defense.