Tag: 2022 wild-card round

‘We were all over them’: Cowboys defense sinks 66-pass effort from Tom Brady

The greatest QB to ever play threw more passes than he ever has in one game, but the Cowboys defense had new wrinkles ready to stop him. | From @ToddBrock24f7

In what could end up being a landmark game in the football life of Tom Brady, the Cowboys forced the 23-year veteran to do something not even he had ever done before.

The Bucs’ 45-year-old quarterback put up a staggering 66 pass attempts in the wild-card loss to the Cowboys on Monday night, the most in any game of Brady’s pro career, and one of the highest numbers ever seen in an NFL game, postseason or otherwise.

The Cowboys had come into the contest expecting a heavy dose of the air attack, with Tampa Bay ranking last leaguewide in rushing attempts, rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, and yards-per-carry over the course of the regular season.

So the mission of Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s unit was clear: suffocate the notoriously quick-trigger Brady in the pocket, and simultaneously cut off his receiving targets downfield.

At the end of the 31-14 Cowboys victory, it’s safe to say the mission was accomplished.

“Defensively, I thought we were all over them as soon as we got off the bus. I think our defense really set the tempo for the game,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters in his postgame press conference.

Brady ended the night 35-of-66 passing for 351 yards, with two touchdowns, an interception, and a 72.2 passer rating.

His 66 attempts were the second-most all-time for a playoff game and put him in very rare company for the most passes thrown in any NFL game. Only ten other men have ever attempted that many throws in a single contest. Brady’s previous high was 65 attempts in a 2012 meeting between the Patriots and 49ers.

“Take away the deep shots they got,” Cowboys linebacker/edge rusher Micah Parsons said of the defense’s strategy after the win. “We made them earn it every time. I think that’s the key. We made the adjustments, did what we had to do. [We] said they couldn’t beat us deep. We executed our gameplan for the most part.”

Indeed. The Buccaneers had just one successful play of over 20 yards on the night.

The Cowboys defense stymied Brady with two sacks, six QB hits, and 12 defended passes.

“We got our hands on a number of balls today,” McCarthy commented. “I know we didn’t get the takeaways we normally get, but most importantly, we were in position for takeaways.”

The one takeaway they did get, however, was monumental. Jayron Kearse’s end-zone interception ruined an early second-quarter Tampa Bay drive which would have (likely) given the Bucs a 7-6 lead and changed the entire complexion of the game.

“We just would not and could not ever let him get to within distance of winning that football game, because he just goes to another level when those things happen,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “That’s his [m.o.], that’s his background. We basically managed our way and performed our way and kept him looking uphill all night long.”

And that included new players, new personnel groupings, and new wrinkles from a Cowboys defense that wanted to make sure they showed Brady something far different from the unit the Bucs thumped, 19-3, in the season opener.

“Everybody kind of knows you have to get to the quarterback someway, somehow,” offered Parsons. “My job had to go to the extra step, and going back-and-forth, blitzing on the ball, off the ball, giving him different looks. Understanding that they were sliding and chipping, trying to create short edges. We got creative today.”

Several key Dallas defenders were brand-new faces to Brady. Rookie cornerback DaRon Bland played only special teams in Week 1, but he was on the field for every defensive snap Monday night. Safety Israel Mukuamu was inactive on opening night; he logged a career-high snaps on defense in Tampa. Corner Xavier Rhodes and nose tackle Johnathan Hankins weren’t even on the Dallas roster for the two teams’ previous meeting.

But all played crucial roles for Quinn’s crew Monday, holding Brady to a completion percentage of just 53%.

“The biggest thing we were able to accomplish coming out of the last three weeks of the season was really to get our defensive personnel flowing,” McCarthy explained. “We had some new players we needed to try out in there, and you could see it clearly this week where we were really able to get into a groove and a rhythm. Dan was spitting the plays in there quickly, and I thought our defense played with great pace throughout the operation. Most importantly, they performed at an extremely high level.”

And when that happens on the defense, the Dallas offense tends to follow suit.

“Complementary football,” Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said from the podium. “I mean, that’s the way it’s been when this team is on fire. And when this team is on, they make stops, we turn them into points, and we just have to continue to build off of that. When we’re able to do that, we’re a tough team to beat.”

Even for the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, throwing more times than he ever has before.

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‘We need Brett’: Cowboys say they will stand by kicker despite horrific night

Brett Maher lived up to his nickname for most of the 2022 season, but an awful wild-card round brought questions about the kicker’s future. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The man they call “Money” sure picked a rough time to start coming up short. But the Cowboys maintain they won’t be making any change when it comes to the specialist position.

Kicker Brett Maher struggled through a historically-bad performance Monday night in Tampa, missing four of his five point-after-touchdown attempts. That makes him the first kicker since 1932 to miss four PATs in a single game.

To have it happen in the playoffs made it even more shocking… and ominous.

Thankfully, the game didn’t come down to a field goal, and those four lost points proved not to be a factor in the Cowboys’ demonstrative 31-14 win. But any games the Cowboys get to play from here on out will be against teams with much better records than the Buccaneers, and Maher’s sudden case of the yips would seem to be of serious concern moving forward in the postseason.

But despite Maher also missing a PAT- his only attempt- in Week 17 to connect on just one of is last six kicks, head coach Mike McCarthy intends to stand by the man who also scored more points in a single season than any Cowboy in history.

“We need Brett, and he understands that,” McCarthy told reporters in his postgame press conference Monday night. “We need to get back on it this week, and get him ready to go. Obviously, we are kicking in an outdoor stadium out there in Santa Clara.”

Maher had lived up to his nickname for most of the season, his second stint with the team (third if you count a brief two-week stay as injury insurance for Dan Bailey during the 2013 preseason). He had missed just three field goals- a 46-yarder and two from 59 yards- and connected on 50 of 53 PATs all year.

And he hadn’t missed multiple kicks in any game this season. Until Monday night.

It was so bad, according to Cowboys sideline reporter Kristi Scales, that the team was actually running out of kicking balls because Maher had sent so many into the stands.

“He’s disappointed,” McCarthy explained, “but we need him. We need him to focus in, and he’s been super clutch for us all year. So that’s the plan.”

After his first two attempts sailed wide right, Maher’s third try went left. Then the fourth hit the right upright and caromed away.

The veteran admitted afterward that he was likely trying too hard to overcorrect with his later kicks.

“In hindsight, I think yes,” Maher said via the team website. “I didn’t feel like that was my mentality going out there, but yeah, just not good enough.”

The 33-year-old was able to punch in his final PAT of the night, in the fourth quarter.

And despite quarterback Dak Prescott voicing his frustrations on the sideline- cameras caught him shouting, “Go for [expletive] two!” after one of Maher’s misses- the kicker says he was getting nothing but encouragement from teammates during his nightmare performance.

“I feel very fortunate to have the teammates that I do,” Maher said. “To be in the locker room and the coaching staff: they absolutely lifted me up today. I so appreciate every single one of them. It’s time for me to do my part.”

Even Prescott had come around by the time he spoke to media members after the win.

“I’m Money Maher’s biggest fan,” Prescott said. “Obviously, I’ve been shown the video of me; it’s just emotions, that’s part of it. I talked to him individually. Just told him after the game to let that go; we’re going to need him. I just played like [expletive] a week ago. I mean, that happens. But when you believe in each other, you believe in what we’re capable of doing and knowing what that guy has done, with the resiliency he’s shown throughout his career personally, no doubt he’ll come back next week and be perfect and help us win.”

Team owner Jerry Jones was just as confident in Maher in the moments after Dallas’s statement win, saying the team would not be trying out any new kickers prior to the weekend’s divisional matchup with the 49ers.

“No. No. We won’t,” Jones said Monday night. “He’s done enough good ones. I don’t think he’s blown the socket or whatever you do.”

But by Tuesday morning, Jones sounded a little less sold on Money’s spot being guaranteed.

“We’ll read this thing as the week goes along,” he told Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan. “I don’t want to get out over our skis and get ahead of it. I thought when he came out at halftime- I watched him warm up out there- he was making all the kicks. I figured that was behind him, but we will take a look at it. [It would be] really a big setback to go into the rest of this tournament, rest of this playoff, with shakiness at kicker.”

Adding to the uneasiness is Maher’s past history with the club. Good enough in 2018 to force Bailey’s release, Maher finished that season in the top 10 in field goals. And in 2019, he sank two from over 60 yards early in the season, only to have accuracy issues late in the year, leading to a December release.

He was good on better than 90% of both field goals and extra points in the 2022 regular season, his reunion tour with the Cowboys.

But on Tuesday, Jones even allowed for the possibility of carrying two kickers on the gameday roster if the the team feels it can’t rely on one.

“It’s an imposition to have to use up that extra roster spot,” the owner explained, “but it’s doable.”

Hall of Fame kicker Morten Andersen, now 62, jokingly threw his own cleats into the ring on social media during Maher’s performance.

Having two kickers on the playoff roster would be an extreme emergency plan, to be sure, but the Cowboys were almost forced into that sort of mindset Monday night versus the Bucs.

McCarthy confirmed that, had they not held a significant lead in their first-round tilt, they might have considered going for two-point conversions rather than continuing to send their struggling kicker onto the field.

“That’s definitely a consideration,” McCarthy said.

While the coaching staff explores all their options moving forward, Maher will simply keep plugging away, hoping that when he lines up for his next boot, the team will continue to look at him as money in the bank.

“Get back at it,” the kicker said of his plan for turning things around. “Hit some balls, have a great week of practice, get myself ready to go.”

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Cowboys activate practice window for Johnathan Hankins ahead of wild card round

The big DT says he feels ready to go after a pec injury held him out for 4 weeks; he’ll look to keep the Bucs’ run game grounded on Monday. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Johnathan Hankins was missed.

Granted, it’s hard not to miss a 6-foot-3-inch, 340-pound man when he’s suddenly not where he’s supposed to be. But when Hankins went down with a pectoral injury against Houston in Week 14, the big man’s absence was felt.

The Cowboys activated the defensive tackle’s 21-day practice window on Wednesday, clearing the way for him to work with the team and perhaps even be back on the field Monday night for the first round of the playoffs.

“I feel good,” Hankins told Patrik Walker of the team website. “I feel like I could’ve been back out sooner, but with the [injured reserve] rules, I had to be out four weeks. But I’m not mad about it; it just gives me more time to get my body right and ready for the playoffs. The time is now.”

Hankins came to the Cowboys in late October after a trade with Las Vegas and hasn’t logged more than 33 defensive snaps in a game since he joined the team. But he proved quite effective in late November and early December, helping to hold Dalvin Cook, Jonathan Taylor, and Dameon Pierce to 72, 82, and 78 rushing yards, respectively, in his last three outings.

“I thought the first couple weeks with John, we were getting him ready to go,” Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said this week. “Then I thought it just clicked: his space and how to fit in and how we play. … I’m definitely looking forward to having the big fella back inside. However a team wants to play, you have to have the big guys, have to have the rushers who cover. That’s the chess match on defense. Make sure: Do you want to go wide open? You’ve got to have the guys to do that. Want to close them down, get bigger? Have to have enough to do that. That’s the game within the game and having guys like [linebacker] Leighton [Vander Esch] and Hankins back will make that job a lot easier.”

In the Cowboys’ first game after Hankins’s injury, Jacksonville’s Travis Etienne ripped off 103 yards as the Jaguars totaled nearly 200 on the ground in their overtime win.

If he is, in fact, active for Monday’s tilt, Hankins will look to help sink a Tampa Bay rushing attack that’s already been stuck in the harbor for much of the season.

The Buccaneers rank dead last in the NFL in rushing attempts, rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, and yards per carry.

After gashing Dallas in the season opener for 127 yards on the ground, Leonard Fournette hasn’t come within 50 yards of that in any contest since. He ranks 40th leaguewide in rushing yards and is averaging just 41.8 yards per game.

Rookie Rachaad White could be more of a problem. The third-round draft pick out of Arizona State logged just six carries for 14 yards back in Week 1, but he’s amassed 771 yards from scrimmage over the course of the season and has been listed as the team’s starting running back since Week 10.

Tampa Bay leads the league in passing attempts, and Tom Brady may well continue with that approach.

But having Johnathan Hankins back on the Cowboys’ interior defensive line could go a long way in making sure that the Bucs’ running game, which has hit triple digits just three times all year as a team, remains missing in action Monday night.

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NFL Playoffs Predictions, Opening Odds: Cowboys-Buccaneers play Monday night

The game dates and times are set and the opening lines have been released. Here are our predictions for all contests including Cowboys-Bucs. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The NFL playoff picture is all set with the Green Bay Packers’ loss sending the Seattle Seahawks traveling to San Francisco to take on the red-hot 49ers.  The rest of the NFL already knew who they’d be playing against and now everyone knows when as well.

The playoff schedule was announced at the conclusion of the SNF matchup, and as has been expected all weekend, the Dallas Cowboys will be in the final matchup of the weekend. They will travel to Tampa Bay for a rematch of Week 1 when they take on Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in the final of six games this coming weekend. Here’s a look at the kickoff times of the other five matchups and predictions for each contest.