Cowboys vs Buccaneers stock report: Jourdan Lewis, DaRon Bland lead group after win

Here is our stock report following Sunday night’s Dallas Cowboys win.

As Sunday night’s Dallas Cowboys game was wrapping up, NBC’s Cris Collinsworth had quite the remark. The former wide receiver noted that what he saw from Dallas might have been the best games ever played by a secondary. His words, not mine.

It was a remarkable performance from the group, and that it did not have Trevon Diggs as a part of it makes this more difficult to believe. Serious credit, as usual, belongs to Al Harris, but also to Mike Zimmer for how they had this group ready to play.

While the secondary may have stole the show, the reality of Sunday night’s win is that there were a number of people who were significantly involved. This is our Stock Report following the victory and it is full of nothing but green arrows because we just saw one of the finer Cowboys games across this season as a whole.

Let’s begin.

Stock Up: Jourdan Lewis

We have been singing Jourdan Lewis’ praises all season long and on Sunday night he proved exactly why. Players like Jourdan feel like one-in-an-era type of Cowboys who find a way to scratch, claw, fight, whatever you want to call it, and make an impact throughout the course of a tenure that we can’t believe lasted as long as it did. He is in year number eight and giving his absolute all in a game where the Cowboys were just eliminated from the playoffs.

I mean this in the most complimentary way possible, Lewis has always reminded me of Orlando Scandrick in this sense. He will not go away, whether that is from the team in general or relative to the player he is guarding. He was the “other” cornerback taken in his draft class. He is one of one. What a player.

Stock Up: DaRon Bland

The Cowboys played most of this season without DaRon Bland and while we have yet to see a pick-six from him, we may have gotten one of the most incredible turnovers ever that he was responsible for.

Just as it seemed like everything was going to fall apart for Dallas, Bland called game.

This moment was purely DaRon Bland wanting it more than Rachaad White. That is what we love about football at its core, isn’t it? We love that one player can make a decision and act on it and enact their will in a way that beats another.

Stock Up: Donovan Wilson

At one point in the game Cris Collinsworth also likened Donovan Wilson to Ronnie Lott. Yes, this really happened.

Sunday night was sort of that kind of game for Wilson, though. He has always been an enforcer-type player for Dallas and he was let loose over and over and over again throughout the contest. It is a bit of a skill that is hit or miss (no pun intended), but on Sunday night it was hitting all over the place.

Stock Up: CeeDee Lamb

Think back to when the Cowboys were obliterated by the Baltimore Ravens. It was a tough scene all the way around, but the conversations around CeeDee Lamb were not great among Cowboys fans. People were questioning his body language and all of those types of things.

Now recall how Lamb has been playing over the last six weeks or so. Without his quarterback, with a shoulder ailment, on the heels of the team being mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, he was giving his all like everything depended on it. Oh, and this all just happens to be after the front office absurdly delayed his contractual negotiations so far that they went past all of Oxnard.

Stock Up: Jake Ferguson

It has been a while since Ferguson had a moment to shine, but Sunday night showcased the volatile player who seeks out contact that we have come to know throughout his entire career to date. Expectations were high around Ferguson entering the year, and while those things weren’t fully realized, he has exemplified the no-quit attitude that is encircling the team right now.

Stock Up: Marist Liufau

The Cowboys may have uncovered yet another defensive stud in the making. Marist Liufau is playing as good of football as anybody on the team right now.

Liufau has an aggression and physicality to him that is simply different than anybody else. He seeks chaos and is often successful in creating it. Dallas dominated Tampa so significantly in large part to the effort that he offered.

Stock Up: Jalen Tolbert

Multiple things can be true.

It can be true that the Cowboys need to learn some things and admit them about the state of their roster so that they are not depending on players who are unlikely to take the leap into the place that the team fully needs. At the same time it can be true that someone like Jalen Tolbert can certainly contribute to the team’s success in his own way. It is good to see him have his moments.

Stock Up: Nick Vigil

One of the more significant moments ahead of this game on the Dallas side was Eric Kendrick’s name appearing on the inactives list. His absence called for Nick Vigil to step up and rise to the occasion.

He did that and then some.

This is why football is so awesome (in addition to the DaRon Bland stuff up top). The moment required Nick Vigil to be great and Nick Vigil was great. How great is THAT?!

Stock Up: Chauncey Golston

The narrative has caught up to the idea that Osa Odighizuwa has been playing really well this season and is going to get handsomely paid in the offseason. But you know who else was taken in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys that is also having a great year? Chauncey Golston!

Golston has been great all season long and had a nice sack (partly thanks to Carl Lawson) on Sunday night which made things all the more sweet.

Stock Up: Mike McCarthy

It is totally fine if you want the Cowboys to move on from Mike McCarthy. There is logic, reason and data to support that case. But you have to at least tip your hat to the man after what we have seen from this team as of late.

They were 3-7 following an absolute shellacking on Monday Night Football at the hands of a somewhat fraudulent team in the Houston Texans and McCarthy could have very easily packed it up and accepted that the season was in fact doomed from the start. Heck, he could have waved the white flag after the actual start that set them up so poorly in the offseason.

They have won four of their last five games and are a lapse in judgment away from winning all five. It is okay to say that they have done a fine job as of late.