Thursday night saw the NFL kick off it’s 2021 season in spectacular fashion as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers narrowly edged out the Dallas Cowboys 31-29. Here are the knee jerk reactions to last night’s tilt in Tampa:
- Dak is back. Any concerns about whether Prescott’s surgically repaired ankle or injured shoulder would hinder the Cowboys’ signal caller were quickly put to rest. Dallas threw early and often en route to a 403 yard night for Prescott. Dak looked comfortable in the pocket, took some big shots and got right back up, and appeared to be in mid season form on Thursday night.
- It’s a good time to own Cowboys WR’s in fantasy football. When all was said and done Thursday, Prescott dropped back for 58 pass attempts. Amari Cooper led the way with 13 rec (on 16 targets), 139yds, and 2 TDs. Not far behind was Ceedee Lamb with a 7/104/1TD statline on 15 targets, and Michael Gallup with 4 rec for 36yds on 7 targets before exiting early with an injury. If this is a sign of things to come, expect BIG numbers out of the Dallas WR corps this year.
- On the flip side of the coin, Ezekiel Elliott owners may have cause for concern. The former league rushing leader struggled to get much of anything going on the ground yesterday, finishing with 11 carries for 33 yards (3.0 YPC). More concerning for fantasy players who invested an early round pick in Zeke is that backup RB Tony Pollard was more involved in the offensive playbook than you’d like to see and looked far more explosive in the process. Owners have to hope that this is just a case of game script and Zack Martin being out for last night’s game.
- The year is 2021. Why do teams keep giving the ball back to Tom Brady with time left on the clock? At what point do coaches finally realize this is a less than stellar idea? Even the most ardent Cowboys supporter couldn’t have felt good about settling for a field goal and giving the Bucs an opportunity to score with nearly 2minutes left on the clock.
- Could we see vintage Gronk and AB performances this year? Gronkowski posted an 8/90/2TD statline catching every ball thrown his way, while AB had a 5/121/1TD (on 7 targets) statline of his own. Anyone who took a flier on either of these two is absolutely loving their early season returns thus far.
- If you drafted Ronald Jones as a key part of your fantasy team this year, you may be sorely disappointed. Rojo posted a paltry 14 yards rushing on 4 touches. He was heavily out-touched by Leonard Fournette (9 rushes, 32 yards, 5 catches for 27 yards on 7 targets) Thursday night, continuing a trend we saw emerge in the Bucs playoff run last year where his role slowly shrank over time. More concerning is how heavily Giovani Bernard seems to be involved in the passing game on 3rd downs. With so many mouths to feed in the backfield, Rojo may be the odd man out this year in TB.
- Did anyone miss football more than Cris Collinsworth? Every play was “phenomenal”, “unbelievable”, or drew a “you gotta be kiddin’ me!” from the announcer last night. We missed football just as much as you did Cris, but not every checkdown screen play needs an over the top exclamation.
- Fun fact of the evening: following the Cowboys loss, Dallas has officially moved to 0-6 lifetime against Tom Brady. He may not do well against NFC East opponents in the Super Bowl, but there’s at least one team Tom LOVES being matched up against in that division.
- There’s a lot of debate about whether Godwin pushed off late on Tampa’s final drive to secure the catch. Bucs fans will claim no harm, no foul, Cowboys fans think it’s the second coming of the Dez catch/non-catch, those without a horse in the race can likely see it for what it was: Godwin pushed off, but the DB tried to sell it and took a fairly obvious flop. In the end, with how many turnovers Tampa had (including what should have been a touchdown that ultimately gave Dallas the opportunity to take the lead) that wasn’t exactly a game the Cowboys “deserved” to win.
- After a historically bad season defensively in Dallas last year, Cowboys fans can take solace in knowing that their defense looks like a much improved unit in 2021. Will they suddenly be a top 10 defense this year? Let’s not get carried away. But in terms of the ridiculously low bar set in 2020, they’ll definitely be taking some positive steps forward here.
The Cowboys take on the Chargers in Week 2 while the Bucs play host to the Falcons. The rest of the NFL (minus the Ravens and Raiders) take the field this Sunday.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner