Fifth time was a charm,
Brett Mar and there's Mike McCarthy.
Oh yeah, I've got my big chain. Oh man, Big Guy moving.
He we started to the robot or something. I don't know what
that was. Some new move, he just came up. It it's called
shut that. Sean Payton talk up on the head coach of the Dallas
Cowboys. That's that move right there.
That's what that is, that's called. I would say, no, Sean,
Payton shimmy, right there.
So, like the shove it Sean shimmy, right? Be the same for
it, right?
Sean shimmy or shove it shove it media over the Sean Jimmy,
right? Yeah. Something.
Wow. After last year's Wild Card loss at home
which was capped by a failure of attention to detail a poorly
executed.
Riskily conceived quarterback. Draw aimed at buying time for
one more shot at the end zone, which didn't take into account.
The fact, the Empire had to teleport through two bodies
before he could touch the ball in the
ball. Could be spiked which we've talked about at length,
nothing like that. This time around just flat-out Excellence
from the Cowboys wire-to-wire. We're going to break it down
here on PFT alive presented by Google pixel or more Google
store.com. Hello to everyone watching on peacock listing on
Sirius XM, 85 watching and listening on Sky Sports, NFL or
podcast.
Whenever Wherever however, getting emails from throughout
the Galaxy, after our reference to Uranus yesterday. So
I see if we can top it today right out of the gates.
But Chris can't top, what the Cowboys did last night. I got
to give you credit. Not that even use saw that coming.
I didn't think they
just completely kicked the crap out of the, make it such
a lopsided Affair that there was no chance for Tom Brady
to rev up the engine on come back. Heroics. What?
Way to go out at least last year. He did everything he
could to tie up the Rams before the defense. Let them down in
the divisional. Round loss, they didn't show up last night.
It was embarrassing. Well I think we saw a really
you know a little bit what the Buccaneers were all year,
right? You know, we had moments of oh wait it's good and all
that type of stuff,
but we kind of like, you know, hit that point of where Dallas
motivated sick of hearing all the noise about all you finish
the season. This way Dax, not playing well,
So they played their top-notch, a plus type of football game
that we know when they play they're capable of dominating
just about anybody in the sport. And then this is kind of
what we saw from Tampa all year.
We were always hopeful. We had those moments and,
you know, little glimmers of oh, wow,
okay, wait. Maybe they can turn the corner here,
maybe it's the playoffs and they're healthy and maybe this
will be the time where they start to put their best
football together. But no, ultimately it came. I'm back
to. This is the team we saw through the 18 weeks of
the regular season
just inconsistent. No Run game. Mistakes blown coverages.
You know
putting too much on the shoulders of Brady at 45 years
old and and really it was a dominant performance. Like you
said by the Dallas Cowboys, you did just about everything right
after those first few drives or was a little bit of
a stalemate. They controlled the game. From that point
on
Remember the big question was whether or not the Buccaneers
would be able to run the ball. Yeah. Ran the ball back in week
1 when they write a game 2:41 and they had Center Ryan,
Jensen back for the first time. All year, he suffered a knee
injury.
Second day of training camp. They were always very vague
about what type of knee injury it was and we don't really know
and the swelling still there. And you just kind of lingered
and then all of a sudden he's back and he's in the starting
lineup but they still couldn't run
the ball Leonard. Fournette had 11 yards on five carries
Is Richard White had 41 on seven? Yeah, no s***. Had to
abandon the Run game fairly quickly once they fell way
behind and Tom, Brady through 66 pass. Yeah, at 45 years, not
going to have these six passes completed, 35
351 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception of passer
rating of, not very good. Seventy two point two, but
you said we've seen that Buccaneers team all year.
No, at times, we saw
good performances. This was the
Buccaneers that we saw
when we were like, what the hell is wrong with them?
I didn't see anything last night. That made me say, oh, there was
the team that that we saw
beat the Rams are beat the
Saints coming from behind or I know but look at what you're
talking about, look at what you're talking about. So heat
that this do they beat the the average Saints and the not good
Rams and they barely won and had like seven
horseshoes up there, but to do it.
You know, that's what I mean. That's
Mike I fell in the Trap to we all do is Brady, they won
the Super Bowl two years ago, you know. But they're just very few
moments. We had a few of those clutch moments that you're
talking about where you go. Oh wait maybe that's
the way they can play it. If they can just hang around you
know. They can be tough to beat because Brady will be big time
and you know the end of the half and end the game moments.
But ultimately Mike Mike you just said it right?
I mean it's 62 times or however many times it was the throw
the football. That's not sustainable. Double with Tom
Brady. That was one of the things we talked about
yesterday. I know. I talked about it on my podcast,
a bunch, like, if they
have to throw it 40 plus times in a game last, like last night.
No way it's gonna work.
I mean, they couldn't block doubtless. They can't block
Dallas and then we know Brady at his age becomes
uncomfortable, right? So it just Dallas played a great
game. We got to give them credit first off. You know,
for they came out
really, you know, from the get-go I thought like oh wow,
Dallas has their place Saying they're hidden and I thought
that was pretty apparent. Even through the stalemate. Not that
I thought they were about to take off, but once they
did take off, they showed they were in a different class than
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and and you know
just
excite me they excite you when they play like that because you
go ooh that's that's a special team. And can they sustain that
and make a run and do something special here?
Well, and that's something that we saw in fits and starts
throughout the season. I would begin to look, I'm not like
what they did to the Vikings, what they did in the fourth
quarter, the Colts. But
that team has a habit of not showing up when you expect them
to when you don't expect them to, that's when they show up,
that's going to be the challenge on a short week
turning it around from Monday night. Flying back to Texas,
then flying to San Francisco. They have five days to get
ready
for For
six days, I don't know. What do you want to call this Monday to
Sunday? But then the 49ers have Saturday to the following
Sunday, they'll have to travel anywhere. Know that. That puts
even more pressure on the Cowboys to show up and play
like they did last night. And that's the problem. I
think they set a bar last night. Everyone with the exception of
kicker, Brett, Marcel bar. Last night, it's going to be
difficult to live up to it raises expectations. It's very
easy to get yourself. Fired up to go out and play. Well, when
you can use that, everyone thinks
Stink card. Now everyone thinks I'm great and you've got
a parlay that into another great performance against a much
better team
in their building
with a couple of days of difference in preparation time.
It's not going to be easy for the Cowboys, but it sure looked
easy last night and Dak Prescott for is as follows. Tom
Brady was Dak Prescott was spectacular.
He threw half the number of passes
completed 25 and 33 305. Four touchdowns to three different
receivers. Ran one in. Dalton Schultz. Got a couple, there's
the
fourth down, brilliant call. That's, that's the way you Lila
defense. He just was great. He was the guy that they paid 40
million a year to last night. That's when you earn that
money, you step up in the playoffs against one of
the all-time greats.
And you don't just barely win. You kick the crap out of him.
Yeah, that's right. You know, you kind of said it, it was
a nice blend
of surgical, you know, systematic. Just taking apart
the defense.
And then I think when
Add on top of that. Then we saw some of the
hey wait, nothing's there,
he made a nice run, he got out of the pocket.
Scrambled played some backyard football, which he hasn't been
doing a whole lot lately, which is gonna
be a pain in the butt for a team, like the 49ers,
the Eagles going forward, but ultimately to and guys, if we
could show those clips of plays again and I think
not only did he play good,
the Dallas Cowboys were ready for Tampa Bay.
Just some of the plays I mean again this touchdown right here
this is total. Game plan. We kind of know what coverage
you're going to play mess with the rules. You set it right
here.
I'm sure the call that play. In that moment, they had great
evidence. That. Yes, that guy comes down the line of
scrimmage too aggressive. Here's some backyard football
and then he's gonna throw the CD lamp. I the next play Mike
or known. That this one
again another great game plan. Play
creativity, probably broke Tendencies. He acted like he
was going inside, he breaks outside and then this play here
again kind of knowing what they're going to get.
Dialing up the perfect play.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is way to go Dak Prescott,
but way to go, Mike McCarthy,
Kellen Moore for coming up with a game plan. That really,
you know, exposed Tampa and some of the rules and they
hadn't done that, you know, in the first two times or
the first meeting last year in the meeting before that. So, got to
give them credit for some of the creativity and
game-planning, they came up with
I was looking back at the Buccaneers schedule and if
there was a signature win it was all the way back in week 1.
2:41 at Dallas, right? The crazy. And what we now know
about. But teams and I'm glad you mentioned that because
the playoffs are where
preparation, Focus film, study
self, scouting thyself
becomes, I think even more critically important we saw
that play on Sunday in the Vikings game when Harrison
Smith crashed. Down to se Kwang Berkeley,
and the fake, and the throw. And it was obvious that
the Giants knew exactly what the Vikings were going to bite on
and maybe they set something up with their own formation.
Exact, that's where you go. Next level, we're going to show
them something
that we've put on film
umpteen times as rare dangled in front out of here every
single time, right? And guess what, right? This time. We're
not going to do it. And we're going to think,
let them think that they've created. The coat on us when we
use it against them, so
it comes. So that's effective coaching, you know,
at a time when the narrative was based upon how they
performed last year, against the 49ers in the Wild Card,
round that a failure of coaching on Monday, night
could have significant consequences
to Mike McCarthy.
You're going to have some folks who follow the Buccaneers now
saying
what did our coaching staff do here to get ready for this
Cowboys team? What did they do to stay ahead of the curve?
What did we We do to self Scout ourselves.
What did we do to crack the code on the Cowboys? It's not
just execution. You can look at the players and say
Tom Brady. You know he doesn't have it anymore
but coaching is a big part of it too. I expect there to be
some changes on that stab. I don't know. The Todd Bowles is
going to be in trouble after only one year as the head
coach. But
there's been a lot of chatter about Byron Leftwich. He was a
hothead coaching candidate a year ago and at one point it
looked like it was going to be the next Jaguars coach.
There's talk that maybe he's going to be out. There's some
speculation in and around Pittsburgh that maybe Mike
Thompson's way to make a change of coordinator, because he's
thinking left, which is going to end up. They're replacing
MADD Canada. So
then keep an eye on that one in the coming days. Yeah,
I wouldn't be shocked to see that happen. I mean, I'd be a little
shocked. Honestly, if Tampa wanted to part ways with them,
I think Leftwich. And
what we see from that offense is
I like a lot of their answers and what they do.
I do. I mean I think some of those got to go back onto like
hey, Talk about Personnel a little bit as well.
And then maybe the shelf life of that football team is just
gone, you know, a year too far. And we know in the NFL. Yeah.
You win a Super Bowl to three years before that. I mean, hey,
one year before that like the Rams,
it doesn't take much to go. Wait,
that's Super Bowl. Team is great as it was. It's
the lifelines coming to an end. It's over
and I think that's kind of where we got with the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers. I think that's why we saw Tom. Brady try to leave
town last year he felt like this was coming.
Coming last. Offseason Suze. Why? He tried to make a move to
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but yeah just an underwhelming
season
and you it's hard to put your finger on wanting. Any one
thing, it's injuries. It's just,
you know, lack of detail on both sides of the ball,
the Brady life, you know, distractions and the things he
had to go through.
It just was not a good year for Tampa, a lot of distractions
and issues and they never really played good football.
Like you said earlier, just showed us a few moments and
Hours here and there. But other than that
it was very inconsistent.
Well, spin it Forward regarding the Buccaneers later because
frankly, we have all offseason to spin it. That's right. Then
because they're done.
hit, subscribe for the latest news and Analysis from pro
football talk.