Cowboys Attempting History vs. Tom Brady
The Dallas Cowboys are one of the NFL's legacy teams. They've won five Super Bowls. They're the league's most valuable franchise. They check every box in regards to innovation, popularity and - until this current 25-year "hiccup" - success.
But there's something America's Team has never been able to do: beat Tom Brady.
The opportunity to break the 0-5 streak comes tonight when the Cowboys play Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The odds are obviously stacked against a Dallas victory.
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Quarterback Dak Prescott will take his first live snap in 333 days. Pro Bowl right guard Zack Martin won't suit up because of COVID. And while the Cowboys will field 10 new starters, the Bucs return all 22 from the team that won the Super Bowl in the same Raymond James Stadium just eight months ago.
One of them, of course, is the Brady, the 44-year-old icon with a record seven Super Bowl rings and zero losses to the Cowboys.
Brady, who will make his 300th career start tonight, is unblemished against the Cowboys, winning all five meetings while he was with the New England Patriots. In those five games, he completed 110 of 185 passes (60 percent) with 10 touchdowns and only two interceptions. Given his legendary accuracy but average-at-best mobility, the Cowboys have been able to sack him 15 times in the five games.
The Cowboys don't have a player on their roster that has sacked or intercepted Brady, much less beaten him.
Only two Cowboys - linebacker Sean Lee and cornerback Terence Newman - can boast that they intercepted Brady. DeMarcus Ware sacked him three times, followed by Greg Ellis and Greg Hardy (twice each), and once each by Maliek Collins, Robert Quinn, Rolando McClain, Tyrone Crawford, Jack Crawford, Marcus Spears, Ebenezer Ekuban and Nathan Jones.
The Cowboys have thrown four different quarterbacks - Quincy Carter, Tony Romo, Brandon Weeden and Prescott - at Brady, all to no avail.
Tonight, Prescott will get another shot, and in order to beat the Bucs, the Cowboys will have to enter unchartered territory to do so.
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