Pirate Problems: Buccaneers Clash With Cowboys in Primetime
· Yahoo Sports
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys aren’t rivals.
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Tampa isn’t close geographically to Dallas, the teams don’t play in the same division, and nothing has happened organically over the past 50 years that would make this a rivalry game.
But the Cowboys are unique in that pretty much any football fan has an opinion of them.
For that reason, games against “America’s Team” carry more weight than most for anybody, and that’s who Tampa takes on Oct. 8 for a Thursday Night clash. The Cowboys have dominated this series historically, winning 17 of 23 meetings. Dallas took the most recent contest 26-24 in Dec. 2024.
Less than two years before that, Dallas knocked Tampa out of the playoffs with a 31-14 wildcard win. The playoffs are a place Tampa has frequented throughout this decade, making it to the dance every season from 2020 to 2024.
But the Bucs failed to make it last season, going from 6-2 to 8-9 and failing to win an NFC South that featured no winning records.
Getting back to the postseason is the bare minimum for the 2026 Bucs, and beating the Cowboys would go a long way toward doing that.
Like Tampa, Dallas is coming off a disappointing 2025 season, finishing 7-9-1 and missing the playoffs.
The fact that Dallas even won seven games is a minor miracle due to how bad it was defensively. No team allowed more points than the Cowboys, who gave up a whopping 511 (30.1 PPG), making it one of the worst units in franchise history.
So a lot of eyes will be on Dallas’ new defensive coordinator, Christian Parker, who comes to Dallas after two seasons with the rival Philadelphia Eagles, where he was the passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach.
In those two seasons, Parker won a Super Bowl ring, which is something the Cowboys have done five times (tied for the second-most ever), with the last coming more than 30 years ago.
A much better defense will be key to Dallas being formidable again, but the offense, which finished sixth in the league in scoring last year, will need to stay formidable.
QB Dak Prescott will be 33 by the time Week 1 rolls around, which isn’t old, but isn’t young, either. A better defense and more quality play from Prescott would make Dallas a tough out.
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