Dallas Defense Dominates Bucs Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 27 October 2008 Dallas may be a team in disarray but its defense can still be dominant. It was when it needed to be against the Bucs, anyway. The Bucs drove the ball inside the Cowboys 25-yard line four times Sunday but never put it in the end zone during a 13-9 loss that helped knock Tampa Bay (5-3) out of first place in the NFC South. "We moved the ball pretty well today but you have to score touchdowns to win in this league,'' Jon Gruden said. "We had several opportunities to win the game today; we just didn't cash in.'' Nothing new there. The Bucs came into this game ranked 29th in the league in red-zone offense, with just 11 touchdowns in 28 opportunities inside their opponent's 20-yard line. The trend continued against the Cowboys. The Bucs reached the Dallas 20 twice, but the first trip resulted in the Bucs kicking a field goal. The second – on the last drive of the game – resulted in the Bucs failing to convert on fourth down. On the other two drives that saw the offense move to within striking distance of the end zone, the Bucs settled for field goals, the result of a Dallas defense that stiffened during key moments. "When the field gets short we have to do a better job of making plays,'' said Earnest Graham, who was stopped for no gain on a third-and-1 play from the Dallas 18 on the Bucs first offensive drive. Plays like that were the norm on Sunday. The Cowboys limited the Bucs to 47 yards rushing, the fewest allowed by a Cowboys team since Wade Phillips took over as head coach last year. The fact that Phillips took over the defensive play calling from coordinator Brian Stewart may have had something to do with the Cowboys' sudden resurgence. Dallas had allowed six touchdowns in its previous two games, but the Bucs were shut out as the Cowboys defense continually collapsed the pocket around quarterback Jeff Garcia and took away looks into the end zone. "We had some good plays called, but they were playing a four-deep zone and that didn't give us a chance to throw deep,'' Garcia said. "They just did a good job of doing what they do.'' The same could be said for the Bucs defense, which actually outplayed the Cowboys in limiting Dallas to just 172 total yards, the fewest ever for a Cowboys offense in a victory. The only defensive shortcomings came during a late first-half drive, when a quartet of penalties helped Dallas produce the game's only touchdown, that coming on a 2-yard pass to Roy Williams. The key penalty in the drive came when cornerback Ronde Barber was whistled for taking down Cowboys running back Marion Barber with an illegal horse-collar tackle on a third-and-13 play from the 50. That gave the Cowboys new life at the Bucs 33 and after a pass interference penalty against Phillip Buchanon, an illegal contact penalty against Aqib Talib and a personal foul call against Cato June, the Cowboys had the ball at the 2. Williams, who came to the Cowboys in a trade with Detroit two weeks ago, outleaped Buchanon for a jump ball in the corner of the end zone to score the touchdown, which gave Dallas a lead it never lost. "I feel like this was a game we should have won,'' said Barber, who was part of a defensive effort that never allowed former Bucs Brad Johnson to complete pass longer than 14 yards. "The Bucs shut people down,'' said Johnson, who was filling in for an injured Tony Romo (broken right pinkie finger). "The key for us was that we didn't turn the ball over and give them a short field.'' The Bucs did have some short fields, those coming as a result of their decision to bench rookie return man Dexter Jackson and replace him with fellow rookie Clifton Smith. Smith ran his first punt back 20 yards to give the Bucs the ball at their 43 and he ran two subsequent first-quarter punts back 14 yards to allow the Bucs to start drives at their own 33 and 48 respectively. All the Bucs could generate, however, was a pair of field goals. That allowed the Cowboys to stay in the game, and they cut the Bucs lead to three points by notching a field goal early in the second quarter. Matt Bryant's miss of a 51-yard field goal ruined another long Bucs drive and set the stage for the Cowboys drive that resulted in their taking the lead. The win was the first in three weeks for the Cowboys, who have been under pressure to turn around souring season. They now stand at 5-3 overall, the same as the Bucs. "We're still playing good football,'' Michael Clayton said. "We're still a dangerous team. We just let this one slip through our hands.''