How the Dallas Cowboys can use Super Bowl LV to go from pretenders to contenders
The Super Bowl is over.
It’s time to officially turn the page on the 2020 season and focus on the Dallas Cowboys’ renewed quest to become champions again and end their 25-year title drought.
So what lessons can the Cowboys learn from the Super Bowl LV champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers?
The first is the easiest and most obvious. Get quarterback Dak Prescott healthy, signed and back on the field.
The Bucs proved that having a top quarterback is the fastest way to becoming a Super Bowl contender.
Before Tom Brady showed up in Tampa Bay, the Bucs had the longest playoff drought of any team in the NFC. They had not made the playoffs since 2007.
Brady not only took a team that went 7-9 in 2019 to the playoffs, but also turned them into Super Bowl champions.
It starts with the quarterback.
Secondly, the Cowboys must make defense important again. Make it the main thing, not just a complementary piece, as has been the case in Dallas for years.
As much credit as Brady is getting for Tampa Bay’s success, the real Super Bowl MVP was the Buccaneers defense, specifically defensive coordinator Todd Bowles.
News flash to the millennial age of the NFL that fancies high-octane passing offenses: defense still wins championships.
The Buccaneers were the first team to beat three Super Bowl MVP quarterbacks in one postseason.
After sending New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees into retirement with a beat down in the divisional round and putting a clown suit on Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the NFC title game, Bowles painted his masterpiece against the previously unstoppable Patrick Mahomes, the MVP of the previous Super Bowl.
The Kansas City Chiefs came into Sunday’s game led by what was universally deemed as one of the greatest offenses of all time.
Bowles held the Chiefs without a touchdown for the first time since Mahomes took over as starting quarterback. He was sacked three times and pressured a Super Bowl-record 29 times.
Speaking of Bowles, the next lesson the Cowboys can learn is to not be stubborn.
Be ego-less, creative and willing to change.
One reason the Chiefs were favored in Super Bowl LV was because of the success they had in their regular-season meeting against the Buccaneers, a 27-24 victory in Tampa on Nov. 29.
Mahomes completed 37 of 49 passes for 462 yards and three touchdowns to receiver Tyreek Hill, who finished that game with 13 catches and 269 yards. He had 203 receiving yards in the first quarter against a blitz-happy Tampa Bay defense.
Bowles went away from his norm in Super Bowl LV, shunning the blitz and rushing Mahomes with a four-man front. They played two high safeties to prevent the big play and they used their athletic linebackers to rally to the ball underneath.
Mahomes was under constant pressure and never got into a rhythm. He was 9 of 19 for 67 yards in the first half, and finished 26 of 49 for 270 irrelevant yards and the worst passer rating of his career.
Hill had 73 empty receiving yards.
The Chiefs were 3 of 13 on third down.
Here’s another lesson: safeties matter.
The Cowboys have not drafted a safety in the first or second round since taking Roy Williams eighth overall in 2002.
Tampa Bay drafted Antoine Winfield in the second round in 2020, one season after the Cowboys passed on safety Juan Thornill in the second round for defensive tackle Trysten Hill. Thornill was starting in the secondary for Chiefs on Sunday.
Winfield was a huge part of the Tampa Bay defensive masterpiece with six tackles, an interception and two pass breakups.
Overall, the Tampa Bay defense was fast and physical and they won the line of scrimmage.
The Cowboys need to be better up front on defense, especially at defensive tackle where the team hasn’t had standout play at the position since Jason Hatcher in 2013.
Let’s close by going back to where we started.
Brady was the MVP, and he was flawless. But there was nothing spectacular or overwhelming about what Tampa Bay did on offense.
Brady completed 21 of 29 passes for a modest 201 yards.
Two of his three touchdown passes went to tight end Rob Gronkowski.
In an age when all the talk is about high-powered and high-octane offenses with motions and multiple formations, the Buccaneers did it the old-fashioned way.
They ran the ball 33 times for 145 yards. They used the play-action pass and the screen passes.
But they also didn’t turn the ball over, which was the Cowboys primary undoing in starting 3-9, en route to a 6-10 finish in 2020.
These are some Super Bowl lessons for the Cowboys as they move into the 2021 season.
Defense remains to the key to championships. Don’t turn the ball over. Sign Prescott.
