TAMPA, Fla. – Dak Prescott was clinical as the Dallas Cowboys took care of business on the road against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday in the final game of the opening round of the playoffs.
The Buccaneers got the best of the Cowboys in the season opener, 19-3, but Prescott’s five total touchdowns and a dominant defense were too much in the 31-14 wild-card matchup.
The Cowboys will travel to face the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET, Fox) in the divisional round.
Dallas Cowboys
The Tom Brady curse? Over.
The eight-game playoff losing streak on the road? Done.
Monday’s thumping of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ended Brady’s personal seven-game winning streak against the Cowboys and gave Dallas its first playoff road win since the 1992 NFC Championship Game.
It was the Cowboys’ most complete performance this season since the 40-3 demolition of the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 20, and it might be the jolt the team needs to make it back to a Super Bowl for the first time since 1995.
Since that win over the Vikings, the Cowboys were chasing that kind of performance and struggled in wins against the Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans, while losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars in overtime. Now the Cowboys will look to build on this after getting over the first hurdle.
QB breakdown: Prescott kept assuring everybody the interception thing would end. It’s not clear if anybody believed him, but Prescott believed it. He set a postseason record by running for a touchdown and throwing a touchdown in his fourth straight playoff game. He joined Troy Aikman (Super Bowl XXVII) and Roger Staubach (1975 NFC Championship Game) as the third Cowboys QB with four TD passes in a playoff game. His confidence grew steadily. His second touchdown pass to Dalton Schultz was a thing of beauty, scrambling to his left and throwing across his body to the tight end to give the Cowboys an 18-0 lead. In his four previous playoff games, Prescott had at least one interception in three of them. It wasn’t that he just played mistake-free. He made big plays in key moments.
Buy breakout performance: The defense looked like the defense from the beginning of the season when opponents couldn’t crack 20 points in six of the first seven games. Micah Parsons was a nuisance and saw more action at off-the-ball linebacker than he had over the second half of the season. Safety Jayron Kearse had the first red zone interception of Brady’s career in Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers couldn’t run the ball, which was far different from when these teams met in the opener, when they had 152 yards on the ground. The Niners will present more of a challenge with running back Christian McCaffrey, receiver Deebo Samuel, tight end George Kittle and rookie quarterback Brock Purdy, but this has to raise the group’s confidence.
Troubling trend: Kicker Brett Maher was as consistent as he could be in the regular season. He missed just three extra points. Then he missed four on Monday. And that comes on the heels of missing his one and only point-after attempt in the regular-season finale against the Washington Commanders. His first two misses were sliced to the right. His third was hooked the left. His fourth went off the top of the right upright. According to Elias, Maher is the only player in any NFL game since 1932 to miss four extra points in one game, regular season or playoffs. So there’s that. Do the Cowboys need to look at a kicker as they move into the divisional round of the playoffs?
Underrated statistic to know: At one point in the first half, Prescott had 11 straight completions, which broke the Cowboys’ postseason record, previously set by Aikman in Super Bowl XXX against the Pittsburgh Steelers, per Elias. – Todd Archer