After their heartbreaking loss to the New York Giants, the Dallas Cowboys look to rebound against Tampa Bay and keep their playoff hopes alive. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers come back to Edward James Stadium hoping to salvage what has been a disappointing season.
The bigger story here is the Cowboys inability to close out games in the fourth quarter. This season the Dallas Cowboys have blown three 11 point or more leads in the fourth quarter. In the entire history of the Cowboys, up to this season, they had only blown two leads of 11 points or more in the fourth quarter. Last Sunday night, the Cowboys seemingly had the game in hand versus NFL East division rival the New York Giants. Eli Manning, who is having a great season, drove his New York team to two scores in the last 5 minutes and sent the Cowboys packing. Against a much maligned Buccaneers team the Cowboys hope to rekindle some America's Team magic and get back into the thick of the NFC Conference playoff hunt.
Tampa Bay and their young coach Raheem Morris came into this season expected to contend for the NFC South title. They started the season 4-2 and then have since dropped 7 in a row. Their young quarterback Josh Freeman has been erratic and unpredictable and injuries have taken their toll. It has definitely been a disappointing season but the Cowboys know that this is a dangerous football team. If the Cowboys just look at the Buccaneers record, they will leave Tampa Bay with a loss.
This game could come down to Freeman's ability to stay upright in the pocket long enough to find Mike Williams and the other Buccaneer receivers. Dallas comes into the game ranked 24th in pass defense. A week after Eli Manning torched the Cowboys secondary, the Buccaneers must do the same. Freeman came into the game nursing a banged up throwing shoulder but says that he feels good enough to play. Another factor that the Cowboys hope to exploit is turning NFL sackmaster DeMarcus Ware loose. If Ware can disrupt the Buccaneers passing game the Cowboys can hopefully contain the power running game of LeGarrette Blount. Blount leads the Buccaneer rushing attack with over 700 yards and 5 touchdowns. Either way, the Buccaneers will be looking to exploit the weak Dallas defensive backfield with long plays and quick hitters to their wideouts and tight ends.
For the Cowboys to come away victorious on offense they will have to rely on the arm of Tony Romo. Romo has been playing very well the past 6 weeks. The one area that seems to haunt Romo is that he tends to come up short in big games. While it may not be an accurate assessment, it seems to be more prevalent this year as the Cowboys are having trouble closing out opponents in the fourth quarter. On the injury front, the broken ankle of Demarco Murray has the Cowboys relying on Felix Jones to tote the rock. Jones has been up and down and lost the starting job to Murray five weeks ago. Jones will have to have a solid game behind a good Cowboy O-Line. As usual, most NFL games come down to protecting the ball. The team that has the most turnovers is most likely not going to win. The Cowboys certainly need the win with all of the drama that usually surrounds a Jerry Jones owned team. The Buccaneers are playing for pride but would like nothing better than to give the Cowboys playoff chances a deathblow. Whichever team win, it will be a great end of the season win that should have lasting consequences.
