Tampa Bay rolls toward the playoffs with a win streak Dallas likely needs to ruin to keep its own postseason possibilities alive Sunday.
Leading the NFC South at 8-6, the Buccaneers wrested the NFC’s third seed from Seattle last week when the Packers took down the Seahawks.
Winners of four in a row, the Buccaneers hold a one-game lead in the South over the Atlanta Falcons. After their first win in a month, the Falcons announced they’ve benched quarterback Kirk Cousins for rookie Michael Penix Jr. The Falcons hold the existing first tiebreaker over Tampa Bay having swept both meetings this season.
Dallas enters at 6-8 with three wins in the past four games, but the Cowboys are three games behind Washington. The Commanders (9-5) hold the final wild-card spot in the NFC entering Week 16 and the Cowboys are given a 1 percent chance of qualifying for the playoffs by NFL.com playoff predictor.
Their last two wins came against teams long eliminated from the playoff picture, Carolina (3-11) and the New York Giants (2-12).
Tampa Bay’s voluminous offense looms as troubling for a Dallas defense that has allowed 380 points to carry a worrisome minus-82 point differential.
The Buccaneers lead the NFL with eight games of 400-plus total yards and four games with both 300-plus yards passing and more than 100 rushing.
The Los Angeles Chargers were the NFL’s best scoring defense before the Bucs arrived last week and delivered a 40-17 thrashing.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles credited the booming offense to coordinator Liam Coen for fully unlocking the playbook.
“It’s really attention to detail,” Bowles said. “I think it all starts with the run game — how can we run it off of this? How can we throw it off of this? What did we do last week? What do we see? What do they see? And kind of putting it together that way so with the coaches collaborating upstairs and then giving it to the players and feeding it downstairs and (quarterback) Baker (Mayfield) executing it all on the field — the camaraderie and the coordination with those guys, the chemistry of seeing it the same way has been very good.”
Dallas needs to keep pressure on Mayfield to help out a worn-down and injury-depleted secondary.
Pass rusher Micah Parsons (8.5 sacks; 5.5 in the past four games) leads the Cowboys. But behind Pro Football Focus’ top-ranked pass blocker, left tackle Tristan Wirfs, putting a mark on Mayfield is a plan difficult to execute. The hyper-aggressive Chargers dropped Mayfield just once last week.
Defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, out since Week 4 because of a foot injury, isn’t expected to help the cause.
“I don’t see DeMarcus being available this week,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “He wasn’t part of the conversation (for Sunday).”
Mayfield was named the Offensive Player of the Week in the NFC for his exploits in the road win over the Chargers.
He completed 22 of 27 pass attempts for 288 yards and four touchdowns with a pair to wide receiver Mike Evans. The quarterback posted a 135.3 passer rating, helping the Bucs to the largest margin of victory in Week 15. Tampa Bay scored on nine of 12 possessions and didn’t punt.
Mayfield ranks third in the league in passing touchdowns (32) and completion percentage (70.8), fourth in total touchdowns (35) and passing yards (3,617), and sixth in passer rating (104.1).
Bowles said injured safety Mike Edwards “has a chance” to play Sunday after suffering a hamstring injury in Week 13. He was listed as limited on Wednesday. Bucs linebacker K.J. Britt (ankle), Mayfield (knee), tight end Cade Otton (knee) and Wirfs (foot/knee) didn’t participate.
Dallas linebacker DeMarvion Overshown underwent surgery Wednesday to repair the ACL, MCL and PCL in his right knee. Cornerback Trevon Diggs (knee) needs surgery and might not play until the 2025 opener, according to vice president Stephen Jones. Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb (shoulder) was limited Wednesday but center Cooper Beebe (concussion) was a full participant.
