The Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers face off on Thursday night football to kick off Week 1 of the NFL regular season. These two last faced off in 2018 with the Cowboys beating the Buccaneers 27-20.
The Dallas Cowboys were disappointing in 2020, but they believe that was because of the injury to Dak Prescott. Prescott didn’t play during the preseason, but he is still expected to be a full go in this game. Prescott finished the 2019 season throwing for 4,902 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. The running game should also be better with Prescott back, and expect them to really try to establish that early. One problem for the Cowboys heading into this season is they have dealt with COVID issues and guard Zack Martin will miss the game as he is on the COVID list. On defense last year the Cowboys also had some major issues giving up 29.6 points per game which was 29th in football. If the Cowboys want to win this game, they are going to need to make the Buccaneers offense one-dimensional.
On the other side of this matchup is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who hope to win their second straight Super Bowl. The Bucs dominated the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl winning 31-9. The Buccaneers brought back most of last year’s team including Tom Brady under center. Last season the Bucs averaged 30.8 points per game while the defense gave up 22.2 points. On offense the strength of this team can be with the running game. Leonard Fournette, Ronald Jones III, and Giovani Bernard all expected to have big roles on this team.
Dallas is 4-1 against the spread in their last five games as an underdog. The Buccaneers are 4-10 against the spread in their last 14 games played in Week 1. The over is 5-2 in the Cowboys last seven games overall. The over is 4-1 in the Bucs last five games played in September. The road team is 5-1 against the spread in the last six games played between the two teams.
The Buccaneers were the third-ranked offense last season and the Cowboys defense was awful. The Cowboys offense is also better with Prescott under center, and there will be plenty of scoring by both teams. Both offenses are going to roll, and the over will cash.