A quiet confidence in Buccaneers victory over Cowboys The Tampa Tribune, published 16 November 2015 There wasn’t a lot of chatter in the Bucs huddle during Sunday’s game-winning drive ... just a lot of faith and belief. Aided by two Dallas penalties, Tampa Bay marched 56 yards in nine plays, capped by a quarterback bootleg by rookie Jameis Winston from 1 yard with only 54 seconds remaining. “We felt nothing but confidence,’’ said tight end Brandon Myers, whose 17-yard catch over the middle advanced the ball to the Cowboys 16 at the two-minute warning. “Everybody kind of looked at each other in the eye and said, ‘This is what we get paid to do.’ We’re a resilient bunch, that’s for sure.’’ With a deft mix of runs and passes, the Bucs took 3:06 off the clock and won a game when scoring 10 points or fewer for the first time since a 10-3 victory at New Orleans on Dec. 4, 2005. “We knew it was our final chance,’’ center Joe Hawley said. “We were a little frustrated at that point because we hadn’t finished drives. But everybody had confidence that we could get the job done. We went down the field and put it in the end zone.’’ Stopping the run The Cowboys began the day with the eighth-ranked ground game in the NFL, averaging 129 rushing yards and 4.5 yards per carry behind an elite offensive line. With the Bucs loading up to stop the run, Dallas couldn’t generate any offensive balance as Tampa Bay’s defensive front seven dominated the trenches. “Our first thing was stopping the run and making them one-dimensional,’’ Bucs defensive tackle Akeem Spence said after Dallas was limited to 42 yards in 21 rushing attempts. “We wanted to let them try to make (quarterback) Matt Cassel beat us. Once we shut them down on the ground, we got after the quarterback. We made Cassel nervous, where he wasn’t able to set his feet and go through his normal progressions. Our whole defense played lights-out.’’ The Bucs played their third consecutive game without run-stuffing defensive tackle Clinton McDonald, out for the season with a pectoral injury, but Dallas RB Darren McFadden couldn’t find any open lanes as the No. 1 rushing threat on the Cowboys carried 17 times for only 32 yards. “I was pretty pleased with what the front was able to do,’’ Lovie Smith said. “Not just the D-line, but the front seven.’’