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TAMPA, Fla – Tom Brady had 379 yards and four touchdowns, helping defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers kick off the NFL season with a 31-29 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night.
With seats in an NFL stadium filled to capacity for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Ryan Succop won it with a 36-yard field goal with 2 seconds remaining. Brady organized it with a last-minute practice run on the same pitch where the Bucs became the first team to play and win a Super Bowl at their home stadium seven months ago.
“There’s obviously a lot to clean up,” Brady said after completing 32 of 50 passes with two interceptions.
The Bucs, hoping to become the first team to win the title since Brady led the New England Patriots in 2003 and 2004 to back-to-back titles, have returned the ball four times.
“We won,” said the five-time Super Bowl MVP, “but we know it was far from perfect.”
For seven-time champion Brady, it was the 300th regular season start in a brilliant 22-year career – a record for a quarterback. The 44-year-old also joined Drew Brees as the only player to throw more than 300 yards in a game 100 times.
Chris Godwin, Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown picked up touchdown passes in the first half, and the Bucs (1-0) extended their winning streak to nine games dating back to last December. Brady’s second TD pass of the night to Gronkowski gave the defending champions a 28-19 lead. Succop’s field goal came after Greg Zuerlein gave the Cowboys the lead with 48 yards at 1:24 left.
“Like I told our guys, I learned a long time ago that we don’t learn anything more by losing than by losing almost. We have a lot to learn,” said the Bucs coach. Bruce Arians. “Obviously not happy with the start of the game, I loved the end. Our guys are winners, they will finish.
Dak Prescott threw for 403 yards and three touchdowns for Dallas in his first game since suffering a serious ankle injury that ended his 2020 season after just five games. The sixth-year pro didn’t play in preseason after stretching his right shoulder early in training camp, and his throwing limitations were only lifted about two weeks before the first. match.
The Cowboys have never beaten Brady, who improved to 6-0 against them, with five of the wins coming in his historic 20-year run with the New England Patriots.
But Prescott, with the help of a revamped Dallas defense that forced a fumble and intercepted a pass that glanced at Leonard Fournette’s hands to set up a touchdown and a goal, pushed the champions in title at the limit in front of a crowd mainly without mask of 65,566.
In the end, however, Brady made the Cowboys pay for kicking issues that contributed to Dallas scoring just 16 points in the first half. In addition to missing a 31-yard field goal, Zuerlein scored an extra point from the left upright in the second quarter.
Seven of the Cowboys’ first eight possessions started or ended in Tampa Bay territory, but Prescott was still facing a nine-point deficit before Dallas came close to 28-26 on Amari’s 21-yard reception. Cooper with less than a minute to go in the third quarter.
Cooper finished with 13 catches for 139 yards, including a 5-yard TD in the second quarter. CeeDee Lamb scored 22 yards for the Cowboys, who finished 6-10 as Prescott missed the last 11 games of last season.
Brady has been intercepted twice, once on a desperate pass at the end of the first half. Ronald Jones and Chris Godwin also lost fumbles, the latter’s error preventing the Bucs from calling the game off in the dying minutes.
Brown had five receptions for 121 yards, including a 43-yard touchdown before half-time. Godwin had nine catches for 105 yards, but fumbled against the Cowboys 1 to stop a potential practice before Prescott led Dallas to Zuerlein’s goal.
Due to attendance restrictions imposed due to the pandemic, the biggest crowd for an NFL game last season was 24,845 for the Super Bowl played at Raymond James Stadium in February.
Fans arrived early Thursday night for a brief pre-game ceremony celebrating Tampa Bay’s second championship – the first in nearly two decades. They roared when co-owner Bryan Glazer approached the microphone and reminded them that the Bucs are the only franchise to claim a crown on their own turf.
“There was one thing missing,” Glazer said. “You all.”
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