On the eighth try, the Dallas Cowboys finally defeated the man arguably known as the National Football League’s (NFL) greatest player.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady held a 7-0 mark against the Cowboys heading into Monday night's highly anticipated Super Wild Card matchup, but despite his unmatched résumé and the Buccaneers’ home-field advantage, Dallas stampeded to an empathic 31-14 playoff road win.
Dak Prescott put in a prime Brady-like 25-of-33, 305-yard, four-touchdown evening to torch the Cowboys’ hosts.
According to a report on the Cowboys’ website, the 29-year-old Prescott, who missed a significant chunk of the 2022 campaign because of an injury suffered against this same Tampa Bay team, became the first quarterback in team history to pass for 300 or more yards and a minimum of four scores in a playoff game.
Prescott confessed in the article that his greediness played a part in the Cowboys’ 26-6 season-finale loss.
“It was a way for me to just dial back in, but I wiped that clean because I knew what this game meant,” he said.
Second-year Dallas linebacker Micah Parsons helped the defense muzzle Brady by chipping in three tackles and a sack.
Parsons’ solid outing occurred barely 48 hours after he became a father to a baby girl, which prompted him to miss Saturday practice, per a report from Dallas-Fort Worth ABC affiliate WFAA.
The Penn State product tweeted the newborn arrived weighing 7.1 ounces, the station reported.
“Thank you, God, for blessing me with (the) most beautiful baby girl!” he said.
The fifth seed on the National Football Conference (NFC) side of the playoff bracket, the Cowboys are preparing for a divisional round tilt against the two-seeded San Francisco 49ers.
Dallas seeks to avenge last year’s 23-17 Wild Card loss to San Francisco, which boasts the NFL’s best defense for 2022 and is riding the longest winning streak in the league.
“It's important for us to start fast and get on top of them,” Prescott said, according to the Cowboys.