All three Cowboys units put on a show Sunday night in their 26-24 win over Tampa Bay. For the offense, it was Cooper Rush’s red-hot start and CeeDee Lamb’s courageous battle through a painful injury. Defensively, a long list of standouts brought the lumber and delivered big hits throughout the game. And on special teams, kicker Brandon Aubrey continued his assault on both the NFL and Dallas Cowboys franchise record books.
But with the good always comes at least little bit of bad and usually a smidgen of ugly. The Cowboys let Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers work their way back into the game on multiple occasions, usually at the end of a half when they could have just as easily kept their foot on the gas. And the recently-revived rushing attack suffered a serious setback that now makes the success of the past three weeks look more like a bad-opponent blip than a true turnaround.
But a win is a win, and although the Week 16 victory is bittersweet in light of the team’s official ouster from playoff contention, there’s still plenty of good, bad, and ugly to be found once you look past the final score.
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Good: Defense delivering the lumber
Mathematically eliminated from postseason contention several hours before kickoff, the Cowboys could have been excused for simply going through the motions Sunday night. But the defense chose instead to take out their frustrations on anyone wearing pewter-colored pants. Marist Liufau, Micah Parsons, Donovan Wilson, C.J. Goodwin, and Amani Oruwariye were among the Cowboys who made sure they got in a few good swings of the hit stick during the Week 16 win, delivering dynamite blows and flying all over the field. Several supporting-cast defenders also stood out; Nick Vigil led the unit in tackles, while Chauncey Golston, Linval Joseph, and Carl Lawson all made significant contributions in shutting down the Tampa Bay attack.
Bad: Letting Mayfield march downfield late in both halves
The Dallas defense didn’t break Sunday night, but they sure got bent over a couple times, letting the Bucs sneak back into the game late in both halves. Up 20-7 with under two minutes to play before intermission, the Cowboys let Mayfield go 71 yards in less than 60 seconds for a key touchdown. (All but four of the yards on that drive came through the air.) Late in the fourth quarter, it happened again: the Cowboys couldn’t stop a nine-play, 87-yard TD march that never even reached third down. (Mayfield was a perfect 8-of-8 passing on that drive… and ran the other 12 yards himself.) If not for that crazy strip by DaRon Bland with 1:40 to play, the defense’s habit of collapsing when it mattered most would have been the story of the night.
Ugly: Run game regressing
ARLINGTON, TEXAS – DECEMBER 22: Rico Dowdle #23 of the Dallas Cowboys runs with the ball during the second quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at AT&T Stadium on December 22, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
Rico Dowdle came back to down earth in a big way against the Bucs defense. After three straight 100-yard games and back-to-back-to-back career highs versus weak defenses, the new workhorse managed just 23 rushing yards on 13 attempts, averaging a meager 1.8 yards per carry. Tampa Bay’s stingy run-stop unit kept the Cowboys bottled up for 31 total yards on the ground and one touchdown, a one-yard plunge scored by Ezekiel Elliott on his only tote of the contest. The next team on the docket, the Eagles, are statistically about the same this year (if not slightly better) against the run, so the sledding could be tough again in Week 17.
Good: Cooper cooking early
Some wondered if the Cowboys would turn to Trey Lance in an essentially meaningless game, but Cooper Rush had other plans. He went 6-of-6 passing on his first drive and finished the first half having completed 75% of his 24 throws for 226 yards and a score. (That half alone would have been an all-time top-five outing for him.) Rush and the Cowboys slowed in the second stanza, but the hot start proved enough for the team to just squeak by with a two-point win. The veteran finished with a 108.3 passer rating, tied with two other games for the fourth-best of his career. (And two of those higher-rated games have come in the last four weeks.)
Bad: Instead of burning clock, Cowboys nearly blow game
When Jourdan Lewis’s incredible goal-line interception gave Dallas the ball with 6:22 to play and a nine-point lead, the thoughts of Cowboys Nation had already turned to milking the clock. The offense’s first possession of the night had eaten up 5:54, and an early fourth-quarter drive killed another 3:53. That kind of time-consuming keep-away effort (i.e., “running the damn ball”) could have ended the drama early, but Dallas chose to come out passing instead. Rush’s surprising first-down attempt to Hunter Luepke instead went right into the bread basket of Tampa Bay linebacker J.J. Russell. What should have been an interception instead stopped the clock and set the tone for a failed drive that ended in a punt just three plays later, having chewed up just 1:39. It’s what- completely unnecessarily- gave Mayfield and the Buccaneers the opportunity to make things interesting at the end.
Ugly: CeeDee’s shoulder saga
Lamb showed himself to be a true warrior as he continues to play through the AC joint sprain he suffered back in Week 9. Explaining that it’s not the hits from defenders that aggravates the injury as much as hitting the ground, Lamb is putting on a week-to-week show that has become downright painful to watch. Even at less than full strength, he finished with seven catches on eight targets for 105 yards. Many fans were critical of Lamb during his training camp holdout over a new contract, but seeing him literally put his body on the line in games that now mean nothing should prove where Lamb’s priorities really are. (But that doesn’t make seeing him slammed to the turf any easier to swallow.)
Good: Brandon Aubrey breaking records
Aubrey effortlessly connected on three more field goals of over 50 yards on Sunday, giving him 14 so far this season, a new NFL record. He’s also the first kicker ever to have back-to-back seasons with 10 or more kicks from beyond 50. And with four more attempts Sunday night bringing his 2024 total to 42, Aubrey broke the Cowboys franchise record for most field goal tries in a single season. (And he still has two more games to go.)
