As bad as last Sunday’s loss against the Washington Commanders looked, the team came away healthy and the result had zero impact on the overall standings for the Dallas Cowboys. Both the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers won their respective games in Week 18, so Dallas was destined to play Tampa Bay regardless. The Buccaneers lost their season finale as well, resting their starters for most of the game and insuring quarterback Tom Brady the first losing season of his career.
Neither of these teams are the same as they were in their Week 1 matchup. Tampa Bay, for a multitude of reasons, doesn’t have one of the best defensive units in football any longer, the Cowboys have Michael Gallup and T.Y. Hilton at receiver instead of Dennis Houston, and Dallas is down two starting cornerbacks in Jourdan Lewis and Anthony Brown.
The keys to victory in Week 1 mainly focused on both offensive lines, whether it was running the football for the Cowboys, or handling Micah Parsons for the Buccaneers, but is that still the case for their playoff matchup? Here are the keys to the Cowboys living to play another week this season with a win over Tampa Bay.