By Ross Mazin
Oh boy; is this going to be a fun matchup. I honestly didn’t think I’d be excited for Sunday night football especially with the Cowboys playing. Normally I couldn’t care less about the Cowboys because I am a NY JETS die hard fan.
I firmly believe that the Dallas Offense will manhandle the Bucs defense. For the first time in a long time the Cowboys are healthy. I expect big stat nights from Dak Prescott, Zeke Elliott and Cee Dee Lamb as they are now the new triplets. We will also get to see Pollard mixed in the same schemes as Elliott and rookie Jalen Tolbert will be thrown into this game right from the first offensive play. The Dallas offensive line is missing their star LT Tyron Smith so we will have a rookie playing the edge and Cowboy quarterbacks have not faired well in these matchups. Dak is going to busy in the pocket and is constantly keeping his head on a swivel as his blind side Will be busy.
The Dallas defense is a top seven defense in football. Dan Quinn has done an amazing job with this young rugged defense. The D-line (with Demarcus”tank”Lawrence as the exception) is a little choppy but things will fall into place. The linebackers led by Micha Parsons and Leighton Vander Esch will have their hands full controlling the flow of the game by keeping the Bucs to three and outs (easier said than done.) The Dallas secondary is top three in the league with there nickname “The No Fly Zone” Meaning don’t throw it our way cause we are everywhere.
Tom Brady will be under center for another year as the Bucs field general. Brady has begun to regress in his 40’s (not that you have really noticed) but he is starting to become a shell of what he once was. Age is finally catching up with him and he maybe has one more year left at the most.
The Tampa Bay buccaneers defense is not a top-notch defense as it once was in my opinion. The Dallas offense will give them a lot of trouble especially with running Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard out there in the same schemes. However the Tampa Bay offense is finally without that major headache Antonio Brown and maybe Brady can focus a little more. Chris Godwin is currently a game time decision for this game with his hamstring. Mike Evans is a little banged up but he is going to be good to go and then of course you have Leonard Fournette. Leonard Fournette is that old style runner of smash mouth straight up the middle right into the linebackers. Vanderesch and Parsons will have their fill of him by the end of the first quarter. With the possibility of being down Chris Godwin that’s going to be able to let trayvon Diggs play Mike Evans Anthony Brown will cover whoever will be filling in for Godwin or Godwin himself. However one big change on the Tampa Bay buccaneers is that Tom Brady does not have his favorite BFF in Rob Gronkowski. Rob Gronkowski was so reliable that even at his age last year which was 38 he accounted for almost 35% of Brady’s targets. So we will see who will step up into that position as the season plays on but Brady will definitely be feeling the loss. I also don’t count out Tom Brady calling Rob Gronkowski and trying to bring them back together for one more time.
This is going to be a great game filled with a lot of action. In the end I truly believe that Mark “Old Ops Guy” Halpern’s Cowboys will be victorious and not leave points off the board like they did last year that cost them that Tampa Bay Dallas game one year ago. As Terrell Owens says “better get your popcorn ready.” Because it’s going to be an exciting game.
My prediction Dallas 34- Bucs 24
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