TAMPA, Fla. — After underwhelming throughout the regular season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hope to hit the reset button starting Sunday night in the NFC Wild Card round against the Dallas Cowboys.
The Bucs snuck into the playoffs despite finishing the season with a losing record. The Bucs lost three of their last five games, but the NFC South was so bad the 8-9 record was good enough for Tampa to get to the playoffs.
Dallas took a more direct route to the playoffs, finishing with a 12-5 record, including winning six of the team's last eight games. The Cowboys finished second in the NFC East en route to the Wild Card game against the Bucs.
For Tampa, the game will come down to the most basic element: can they score enough points?
The Bucs offense has been positively offensive to watch at times this season. The offensive line has been ravaged with injuries all season long including losing starting center Ryan Jensen before the season even started.
Injuries on the line have negatively impacted the running game in a big way. Tampa Bay finished dead last in the NFL in team rushing, managing just 1,308 rushing yards on the season (76.9 yards per game).
The 76.9 yards rushing per game the Bucs averaged was the lowest total for any team since the 2019 Miami Dolphins managed just 72.3 rushing yards per game.
If there was a bright spot on the offense, it was future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady. The man who holds nearly every major passing record in NFL history may have finished with his first losing record this season, but it wasn't due a large dropoff from him.
Brady finished the season throwing for 4,694 yards, 25 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. He averaged 6.5 adjusted yards per pass attempt, even while getting sacked 22 times this season.
But, even Brady's mastery of the position had issues down the stretch. He threw six of his nine interceptions in a three-game stretch in December but rebounded in the last few games of the regular season.
When Tampa is passing the ball, it has the 2nd best passing offense in the NFL. Tampa will need all of that going against a stout Cowboys defense that ranks 8th in the NFL in pass defense.
Unfortunately, Dallas' defensive weakness is also Tampa's offensive weakness. Dallas ranks 22nd in the league in rush defense, but as noted above, Tampa ranks dead last in rush offense.
Dallas will be led by quarterback Dak Prescott who played in 12 games this season and threw for 2,860 yards, 23 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions. Prescott struggled in the final game of the season against the Eagles, but has played well against Tampa in the past.
With Dallas' defensive specialty being playing the pass, and Tampa's offensive specialty being passing the ball; it will be the proverbial irresistible force meeting the immovable object on Monday night.
If Tampa can slow down Dallas' offense and establish any semblance of an offensive rhythm, the Bucs have a great chance of upsetting the Cowboys and moving on in the 2022-23 NFL Playoffs.
But given Tampa's performance this season, that's a mighty big IF heading into the game.
According to the experts in Las Vegas, Dallas is currently a 2.5-point favorite to beat the Bucs on Monday night with an over/under of 45.5 points.
ABC Action News will have a one-hour Bucs playoff preview Monday night starting at 7 p.m. followed by the game at 8 p.m. on ABC Action News.
