Exciting, thrilling, and breathtaking. Those are just a few of the adjectives that can be used to describe the show that the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers put on to kick off the 2021 NFL season on Thursday night. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, the game was snatched from them with two seconds left by a Ryan Succop 36-yard field goal.
Even in defeat, there was some great football played by several members of the Cowboys. It was tough to narrow it down to just a few but here are the three stars of the game for Dallas.
Diggs had his ups and downs on the field as a rookie last season and also missed four games with a broken foot. Despite this, he became the first Cowboys rookie to lead the team in interceptions (3) and pass breakups (14). His first test of the 2021 season came against Mike Evans, a three-time Pro Bowl selection who has started his career with seven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. Quite the task for Diggs, but he responded with a shutdown performance. According to Next Gen Stats, Diggs shadowed Evans on 39 of his 47 pass routes. He gave up one reception for 10 yards on three targets. Also, Diggs added an interception (his second in his last three games) and a pass breakup. https://twitter.com/NextGenStats/status/1436181570876895252?s=19 https://twitter.com/NFLonFOX/status/1436143933759766550?s=19 The former second-round pick had an excellent training camp battling the Cowboy’s three-headed monster at receiver in practice. More importantly, he’s transferring that into real game action, and doing it against a top-five quarterback and a top 10 receiver on the road speaks volumes about where Diggs has taken his game. He isn’t a finished product by any means however Diggs is the unquestioned CB1 on the Cowboys roster with an unlimited ceiling on how good he can be. The Cowboys now turn their attention to Week 2 and the Los Angeles Chargers, another tough opponent early in the 2021 season.
The Cowboys have three receivers who could be No. 1 options on plenty of teams around the NFL in Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and CeeDee Lamb. After Lamb’s spectacular rookie season a year ago, the rumblings began on if he had surpassed Cooper as the Cowboy’s top option in the passing game. However, Cooper cleared up all the controversy on that topic against the Buccaneers. He was targeted 16 times against the Buccaneers and hauled in 13 passes (caught each of his first 10 targets) for 139 yards and two touchdowns. That set a new record for receptions in the opening game of a season by any Cowboys receiver. Thursday night was a continuation of Cooper’s insane chemistry with Prescott. Over his last 17 full games with him at quarterback Cooper has amassed 108 receptions on 161 targets (67.1%) for 1,443 yards. This includes six games over 100 yards and five games of double-digit receptions. https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1436162302714253313?s=19 Although his performance was big-time Cooper’s attention postgame was on the plays he didn’t make. “I had a lot of catches but I always focus on the ones that didn’t go my way that could have helped the team,” Cooper said. “There were so many big plays I left out there that I need to clean up.” Cooper expressed recently that he felt he was the best receiver in the NFL but he hasn’t proven it yet. He may never get that title by the masses, but his performance Thursday night was a reminder that when talking about the best at the receiver position in the NFL his name shouldn’t take long to get to.
The return of Prescott was highly anticipated. Last October, his season was cut short after suffering a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle. He had another small setback during training camp when he missed a month of competitive drills with strain in his throwing shoulder. However, Prescott was unleashed on Thursday night after 11 months, and he didn’t disappoint. Despite the Buccaneers bringing back all 11 starters from a top-five defense in 2020, they had no answer for Prescott. On the Cowboy’s second possession, he completed all seven of his passes and ended the drive with a 22-yard touchdown to CeeDee Lamb. In the first half, he connected on 23 of his 32 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns. In the second half, Prescott continued to carve up one of the NFL’s top defensive units. He completed 19 of his 26 passes for 179 yards and added a touchdown to Amari Cooper, his second of the game. However, it was Prescott’s poise on the Cowboy’s last full drive that stood out. With 4:52 left in the fourth quarter, Prescott lead an 11-play drive that took up almost three and a half minutes. He went six of eight for 70 yards and the Cowboys took a late 29-28 lead on a 48-yard field goal by Greg Zuerlein. Prescott went 42 of 58 (72%) for 403 yards and three touchdowns against the Buccaneers. It was his fourth consecutive 400-yard performance in a full game dating back to last season. He broke Peyton Manning’s completion record for a Week 1 game (had 40 in 2010) and passed Don Meredith for fifth place on the Cowboy’s all-time list for pass attempts (2,351). https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1436130846512189448?s=19 The Cowboy’s offensive line did a great job, along with Ezekiel Elliott, only allowing one sack and kept Prescott with plenty of time to throw. According to Pro Football Focus, Prescott was 33 of 41 for 294 yards and two touchdowns passing from a clean pocket. All the questions and doubts about Prescott should have been put to bed Thursday night. Prescott is legit, and he let Brady know this wouldn’t be their last meeting in 2021. “We’ll see y’all again,” Prescott told Brady after the game.
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