Buccaneers Will Host Cowboys to Start Playoffs

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers started their 2022 division-winning season in Dallas. The Dallas Cowboys will start their 2022 playoffs in Tampa.

The Buccaneers clinched the NFC South in Week 17 with a 30-24 win over the Carolina Panthers, locking them into the fourth seed in the conference postseason field. The Philadelphia Eagles then clinched the NFC East, and the lone opening-week bye in the conference, with a victory over the New Orleans Saints. That in turn locked the Cowboys into the fifth seed as the top Wild Card team. The Cowboys finished the season with a 12-5 record after a loss to the Washington Commanders in Week 18.

The game will take place on Monday Night Football at Raymond James Stadium on Jan. 16 at 8:15pm ET on ESPN/ABC. While the Eagles enjoy their bye, the three other NFC division winners will play home games against the three Wild Card teams. The fourth seed hosts the fifth seed, the third seed hosts the sixth seed and the second seed hosts the seventh seed.

The game in Tampa will be a rematch from Week One, when the Buccaneers beat the Cowboys, 19-3, at AT&T Stadium in a nationally-televised Sunday Night Football matchup. Leonard Fournette ran for 127 yards to power the Bucs' offense, which got its lone touchdown of the game on Tom Brady's five-yard pass to Mike Evans in the third quarter. Devin White led the defense with two sacks and Antoine Winfield Jr. picked off Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who suffered a thumb injury that caused him to miss five games.

This is also a much-delayed postseason rematch, as the second and third playoff runs in Buccaneers history both started and ended in Dallas. After earning a Wild Card berth in 1981, Tampa Bay went to Dallas in the opening round and was handed a 38-0 loss. History repeated itself in 1982, when the NFL held a "Super Bowl Tournament" following a season that was shortened to nine games by a players' strike. The top eight teams in each conference qualified for the postseason and as the seventh seed the Bucs traveled again to Dallas to take on the second-seeded Cowboys. This one was more competitive and the Buccaneers briefly held a 10-6 lead in the second quarter after a 60-yard fumble return touchdown by Hugh Green, but the Cowboys stormed back to win, 30-17.

The Buccaneers have won their last two games against the Cowboys, also opening the 2021 season with a prime-time win in the NFL's annual Kickoff Game. Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes, two to Rob Gronkowski, and the Bucs prevailed, 31-29, on Ryan Succop's 36-yard field goal with two seconds left. Tampa Bay and Dallas combined for 882 yards of offense in a game that featured four lead changes.

Dallas brings one of the NFL's most explosive offenses to Tampa for the postseason showdown. The Cowboys scored 28.8 points per game through the first 17 weeks of 2022, which ranked second in the NFL, and they also ranked third in third down conversions (47.4%) and second in red zone touchdown efficiency (70.9%). The Cowboys won four of the five games Cooper Rush started while Prescott was recovering from his injury, but the team averaged 35.1 points per game since Prescott's return, through Week 17.

The Cowboys also had the NFL's seventh-ranked scoring defense through Week 17 and a Defensive Player of the Year candidate in do-it-all linebacker Micah Parsons. Parsons, who had both of the Cowboys' sacks of Tom Brady in Week One, was tied for fifth in the NFL with 13.0 sacks through 17 weeks and had forced three fumbles and recovered three more. Playmaking cornerback Trevon Diggs had notched three interceptions and 14 pass breakups heading into Week 18.