Dallas Cowboys vs. Tampa Bay Bucs: Position Battle Breakdown

DALLAS COWBOYS VS. TAMPA BAY BUCS – SPECIAL TEAMS

This is perhaps the most up and down phase of the game for the Dallas Cowboys while the Tampa Bay Bucs are steady across the board.

For the Bucs, they’ve got promising returners. The running back White will get touches in the kickoff game while second year WR Jaelon Darden will handle the punt duties. Both highly explosive. Jake Camarda is a solid punter who Tampa hopes to hardly use. Kicker Ryan Succop wasn’t exact the most reliable, but is a veteran who’s been in the league a long time.

The Dallas Cowboys have tons of excitement in their return game. “Bones” Fassell will likely want his new shiny gadget Kavontae Turpin handling both Punts and Kickoffs. The Cowboys also return their All-Pro Punter Bryan Anger, who proved to be a weapon. However, kicker is such a massive issue for the Cowboys and using Brett Maher is nothing more than hope.

SPECIAL TEAMS VERDICT:

TAMPA BAY – As excited as the Cowboys are for Turpin and as great as Anger was a season ago, this comes down to the kicking game. Succop’s not great, but he’s hit over 90% of his FGs and had perfect XP seasons multiple times in his career. That gives Tampa Bay the edge here.

And there you have it. This game without question will be coming down to the wire Sunday night. In the end, it will be the Dallas Cowboys at home who end week 1 with a statement win and finally beat Tom Brady even if it does come when he’s 45 years old.

Final Score: 20-16 Dallas Cowboys.