![]() ![]() Once the championship signage was unveiled and the National Anthem was sung, we got the new season underway with Dallas winning the coin toss and deferring. It was quite the scene at Raymond James Stadium leading up to kickoff, as it was one final chance to celebrate the Bucs’ Super Bowl LV triumph on the very same field seven months ago. Dallas took a late lead with 1:24 to go, but that was too much time for Brady and the offense, which drove down and set Ryan Succop for a game-winning 36-yard field goal with two seconds left. The Bucs weren’t at their best and the Cowboys certainly were, but it was the defending champions coming away with a 31-29 victory. The Bucs came in as nine-point favorites on their home field, with ESPN’s matchup predictor giving them a 70% chance to start the season with a victory. ![]() While a now-healthy Prescott was reuniting with Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup on a talented offense, not many gave Dallas much of a chance in this one, due in large part to the fact that its defense is in something of a rebuilding phase. On the down side for Dallas, All-Pro guard Zack Martin had to sit this one out after being placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list earlier this week. Prescott, the 2016 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year and two-time Pro Bowl selection, was playing his first game after recovering from a broken ankle as well as a shoulder injury. The Cowboys came into Thursday night on a bit of a high themselves, as they took the field with Dak Prescott as their quarterback for the first time since October of last year. Not to mention, Bucs fans were back in full force at Ray Jay on Thursday night after capacity restrictions in 2020 cost them a chance to create much of a home-field advantage for their team. Tampa Bay came into the new season riding an eight-game winning streak and, after returning its entire starting lineup from Super Bowl LV, have been tabbed as favorites to go the distance and win its second consecutive Lombardi Trophy. At long last, the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers returned to Raymond James Stadium on Thursday night to host the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL’s regular season opener.
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