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After further review: Cowboys coaches put on a clinic in 26-24 win over the Buccaneers

December 24, 2024
Tampa Bay Buccaneers v Dallas Cowboys
Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

Sunday night was really impressive for the Dallas Cowboys.

The Dallas Cowboys put a damper on the playoff hopes of Tampa Bay by beating them 26-24 in a Sunday night thriller. It was satisfying seeing so much good football from a team that has endured so much this season. Despite several All-Pros out of action for the Cowboys, they played one of their better games of the season. They are one Amani Oruwariye muffed block punt away from riding a five-game winning streak. That’s not too shabby.

There are no goalposts to move in this one. The Bucs are a good football team and didn’t have a sloppy performance. The Cowboys just showed up with a lot of fight and never slowed down. Let’s check out some key factors after re-watching the game film.

THESE ARE OUR HEROES

It’s no secret the Cowboys' defense has been hit hard with injuries this season. While a lot of the damage has been at defensive end (their four top edge rushers have missed extensive time this year), the cornerback group is continuously affected. It’s been so bad this year, that seven different corners have logged at least 150 reps this year. That’s insane.

Despite the chaos, their corners keep making plays. It doesn’t matter if it’s Josh Butler or Oruwariye on the outside (both are injured now), the unit never looks incapable of getting off the field. And the savvy veterans that are healthy, DaRon Bland and Jourdan Lewis, turned out to be heroes in this game.

THIRD TIME’S A CHARM

There were multiple times the Cowboys’ defense had a chance to make a big play in this game, but the first two times came up short. It looked like a disaster for Baker Mayfield when he refused to go down only to have the ball come out and was right there for the taking by Cowboys’ linebacker Nick Vigil. Unfortunately, the ball rapidly rolled to the sideline and Vigil couldn’t possess it cleanly before going out of bounds.

Similarly, we thought Donovan Wilson had a sack/strip on Mayfield early in the fourth quarter, but closer review showed Baker was down before the ball came out. Luckily for the Cowboys, their relentless fight earned them one last opportunity to make a game-changing play and they didn’t disappoint when pick-six specialist Bland added picking pockets to his repertoire.

A GROUP EFFORT

It was quite impressive to see the tenacity of this Cowboys defense. They were swarming to the ball, closed fast on receivers, and a Bucs ball carrier wouldn’t be tackled without someone trying to strip the ball away. Everyone was attacking. The defense was without DeMarcus Lawrence, Trevon Diggs, DeMarvion Overshown, and Eric Kendricks but they still had enough soldiers to fend off one of the league’s best offenses. Props to defensive coordinator, Mike Zimmer, for doing such an incredible job.

MCCARTHENHEIMER

The offense has been under fire this season as they weren’t always playing well even with Dak Prescott under center. Oddly enough, they’ve started to play some of their best football in recent games. If you look at the game splits, you might be surprised to learn that the Cowboys are scoring more points (barely) in games with Cooper Rush at quarterback than they did with Dak.

  • The first eight games (with Dak) = 21.4 points per game
  • The last seven games (with Cooper) = 21.9 points per game

This is not an indictment of Dak (although it’s music to the ears of Dak haters), but more about how certain elements of the offense have improved. The offensive line is playing better. The play-calling has looked much better. And even though Rush makes some ugly throws at times, he’s strung together some decent QB play lately. Credit Mike McCarthy and Brian Schottenheimer for attacking down the field with some timely play-action passes. It was much better than the conservative dink, dunk, and punt offense we witnessed earlier in the year.

DEPTH RECEIVERS

Not only is the offense looking better recently, but we are starting to see some uptick in performance from some of their depth receivers. Jalen Tolbert had a couple of nice catches on the money down and rookie Ryan Flournoy had a career-high three catches for 41 yards when he came in to spell CeeDee Lamb in the second half. It’s not much and doesn’t do anything to dispel the dark shadow cast by the non-existence of Jonathan Mingo, but it’s nice to see something out of the down-the-roster pass catchers.


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