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TAMPA, Fla – The “Tommy and Gronky” show with Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski picked up where he left off just seven months and two days ago: with two touchdowns, or “tuddies,” as they call them, matching their two Super Bowl LV “tuddies”, in a gripping 31-29 win over the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL kickoff game on Thursday night.
Brady’s 11-yard third-quarter strike against Gronkowski was the pair’s 100th touchdown connection together – the first time a quarterback and tight end have hung on for 100 scores, putting them behind only Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison (114) for most touchdown connections of all time.
But unlike the Super Bowl, where the Tampa Bay defense orchestrated a near shutout of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, the Buccaneers needed Brady and Gronkowski to carry them. The 44-year-old, starting his 300th career game, threw for 379 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions, with Gronkowski representing 90 receiving yards and Antonio Brown and Chris Godwin both eclipsing 100 yards.
Brady also orchestrated an 11-game, 57-yard run with 1:22 left in the fourth quarter to set up the winning basket.
Stopping Ezekiel Elliott and making the Cowboys one-dimensional – the Bucs’ defense goal all week – only meant quarterback Dak Prescott could introduce his trio of talented receivers to Michael Gallup, CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper, throwing for 403 yards. and three touchdowns. Even in the absence of Cowboys center Zack Martin due to COVID-19, and without a preseason due to his recovery from ankle and shoulder injuries, Prescott chopped up the Bucs’ defense, making many of their ineffective blitz.
To make matters worse, the Bucs lost starting cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting in the first quarter to an elbow injury and the Cowboys have repeatedly chosen to pick third cornerback Jamel Dean. Nor did the Bucs start safety strong Jordan Whitehead, who was ruled out of the game with a hamstring injury.
They made enough timely plays, despite the game almost literally slipping away at the end of the fourth quarter when Godwin made his way to the end zone and spat the ball out at the 2-yard line. . That set up a Dallas practice that ended with a 48-yard field goal from Greg Zuerlein to give the Cowboys a 29-28 lead with 1:29 to go.
Tampa Bay’s victory improved the Super Bowl champions to 38-16-1 all-time in the opening games of the season.
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