The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will face the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night in their biggest challenge of the season so far.
The Cowboys are red-hot offensively, scoring 30 points in three consecutive games, and the Buccaneers defense will be tasked with slowing down that unit on a short week without star safety Antoine Winfield Jr.
On the other side of the ball, Tampa Bay’s offense is reeling, and they’ll need to quickly get back on track and light up the scoreboard if they hope to keep pace with Dallas. They’ll be facing that challenge without Baker Mayfield, and relying on undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels in his seond career start.
The odds are stacked against the Buccaneers, but if several key players can step up and deliver big-time performances, Tampa Bay has a chance to pull off an upset and earn their first win of the year.
5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers players who must show up against the Dallas Cowboys
QB Jalon Daniels
Daniels showed some flashes in his first NFL start, but his two interceptions killed any chance the Buccaneers had of earning their first win of the season.
If he can build on the positives from his debut while eliminating the costly turnovers, it would go a long way toward giving Tampa Bay a chance against the Cowboys.
CBs Zyon McCollum & Jacob Parrish
The Buccaneers have no chance to win this game if their outside cornerback duo doesn’t show up to play. Ceedee Lamb and George Pickens form arguably the best wide receiver duo in football, and they’ve got an MVP-level Dak Prescott throwing to them.
The Buccaneers will be short handed at safety with Antoine Winfield Jr. out due to a rib fracture, putting even more pressure on the cornerbacks to win their matchups.
For the Bucs to have any legitimate chance to win this game, McCollum and Parrish will have to repeat their Week 1 excellence where they largely contained Bengals wide receiver duo Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins — holding them to a combined five catches for 71 yards.
Safeties Tykee Smith and Ifeatu Melifonwu
With Winfield Jr. sidelined, Melifonwu is the next man up at the safety position, and he’s got big shoes to fill.
Smith will have to step his game up as the secondary faces its biggest test yet.
McCollum and Parrish simply aren’t going to win every rep against Lamb and Pickens. In the situations where they get beat, they’ll be relying on safety help to prevent explosive plays downfield.
The Cowboys boast the most dangerous aerial attack in football, and the entire secondary must rise to the occasion, or they’ll be humiliated in primetime.
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