The Dallas Cowboys did all they could to beat the defending Super Bowl champions — and somehow still found a way to be on the wrong side of history. Dallas finished the night accumulating 451 total yards and notching four takeaways on the road, yet still lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
How rare of a feat is this? The Cowboys are the first team since the 1996 St. Louis Rams to put up more than 450 yards of offense and have four takeaways on the road — yet still lose the game. This odd statistic has only been accomplished nine times since 1940, but only once over the past 25 years. Three of those occurrences happened in overtime, showcasing how difficult it was for Tom Brady and the Buccaneers to overcome the mistakes and the defensive struggles in the 31-29 victory over the Cowboys.
Brady finished 32 of 50 for 379 yards and four touchdowns, becoming the only player to toss four touchdowns on kickoff weekend three times. Brady also joined Drew Brees as the only players to throw for 350 yards and four touchdown passes on kickoff weekend twice. The Buccaneers quarterback went 5-for-10 for 62 yards on the final drive, which led to a Ryan Succop 36-yard field goal with two seconds left to give Tampa Bay the victory. Brady notched his 40th fourth-quarter comeback in the regular season, training only Peyton Manning (43) for the most in league history. Brady also had his 49th game-winning drive, which is third in league history.
In addition to the Cowboys historic feat, quarterback Dak prescott set a NFL record for completions in Week 1 with 42. Prescott and Manning are the only two players to record 40 completions on kickoff weekend. The Cowboys quarterback finished 42 of 58 for 403 yards with three touchdowns to just one interception (101.4 rating). Prescott became just the fifth quarterback to throw for 400 yards twice on kickoff weekend and his 58 pass attempts in Week 1 tied Glenn Foley for the NFL record. Foley threw 58 passes for the New York Jets in a 36-30 overtime loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Week 1 in the 1998 season.
Prescott and the Cowboys made history, but they were on the wrong side of it this weekend.
