5 bold Dallas Cowboys predictions in Week 1 vs. Tampa Bay

The Dallas Cowboys start the 2022 campaign at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Here are 5 bold predictions for their season opener.

Sunday Night Football will feature a rematch from the opening weekend one year ago as the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers once again face off against one another. In 2021, Tampa Bay won on a last-second field goal thanks to Tom Brady marching the offense down the field with fewer than two minutes to play.

That win came in Tampa, so the Cowboys have a shot at revenge in front of their home crowd this weekend with AT&T Stadium playing host. Here, we look ahead to that game and make five bold predictions for Week 1.

5 bold Cowboys predictions in Week 1 vs. Tampa Bay

5. Turpin runs one back

One of the stars of the preseason for Dallas was KaVontae Turpin, an undrafted free agent who won the MVP during the inaugural season of the USFL. Dallas signed Turpin in August and it didn’t take long for him to prove he can be a playmaker at this level as well.

In their Week 2 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Turpin ran a kickoff back for a 98-yard touchdown and then added an 86-yard punt return for a touchdown as well.

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There will be those who scoff and say that touchdowns in the preseason mean nothing, but the numbers are overwhelming when you look at what Turpin did compared to the rest of the league. In just five attempts, he had two touchdowns while the rest of the NFL scored zero times on a combined 442 returns.

With that being said, Turpin will make a huge play once again under the bright lights as this first bold prediction is that he runs in a touchdown on special teams.

4. Jalen Tolbert scores twice

Dallas got some good news with Michael Gallup practicing once again after having surgery to repair his ACL, but it’s not as if he’s going to be ready for Week 1. He’s only been doing light drills as an individual but could be back within a couple of weeks.

With him still out, the Cowboys will have to turn to Jalen Tolbert as the No. 2 wideout across from CeeDee Lamb. We all know Lamb is going to get his targets and he’s also going to draw the double teams. That should free up the rookie to have plenty of opportunities in one-on-one coverage.

There’s probably some concern there since he didn’t exactly go off during the preseason but he was also playing with a lot of backups. Not only were Cooper Rush and Will Grier throwing him the ball but they were dealing with a pretty rough offensive line in front of them.

The line should be better — although it has issues of its own — and Dak Prescott will also be the one throwing him the ball. That should be a good enough combination for Tolbert to resemble the player we expected to see when taken in Round 3 out of South Alabama.

Look for him to catch a handful of passes while also scoring his first two NFL touchdowns on Sunday Night Football.

3. Micah Parsons records three sacks

As a rookie, Micah Parsons had seven tackles, a pass deflection, and a quarterback hit in his debut against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs. While those stats are good, he wasn’t at his best just yet.

The first-round pick was still trying to figure the NFL out and had to go against the best quarterback in the game while doing so. Now one year later, he’s become a major playmaker and is willing to admit he wants to do what he can to get Brady out of the league.

"“We got to get him out of this league. He’s been dominating this league too long. He keeps coming back,” Parsons said via Clarence Hill, Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Just going through what he’s been able to do over these last couple years. I think everyone in the league can see it, and we voted him to be the No. 1 player. It’s a blessing to still be able to play him.”"

Parsons meant nothing malicious by this, as he not only praised Brady as the No. 1 player in the NFL but also compared him favorably to several superheroes. He just knows that if teams such as the Cowboys want to win it all, it would be easier without No. 12 on the field.

On Sunday, Parsons should do what he can to slow Brady down as this bold prediction claims he will rack up three sacks on the Tampa Bay signal-caller. Parsons had 13 as a rookie and wants more this season. What better way to reach that goal than to start off on fire?

2. Trevon Diggs gets a pick-six

It’s hard to find many players who get mercilessly criticized for playing well the way Cowboys players do. Take Trevon Diggs for example.

The second-year cornerback led the NFL with 11 picks and ran two of them back for touchdowns. One of those came against the Eagles in Week 3 and one was against the New England Patriots in Week 6.

That interception against the Pats was his seventh pick in six games, and he had at least one in each of those first contests — including one against Tom Brady. That pass bounced off the fingertips of Leonard Fournette, but Diggs was still in the right place to make the play and hauled it in.

Diggs has also heard the criticism, which consists of people claiming he gets burned routinely by wideouts. While it’s true he’s given up some big plays, most coaches would take a guy who routinely gets the ball back for his offense. Diggs does this and Troy Aikman — who knows a thing or two about passing the ball — compared Diggs to Deion Sanders.

He’s also said he would fear players who picked off passes much more than a “lockdown” corner because incompletions rarely hurt the offense. A turnover, on the other hand, can be devastating.

This prediction is that Diggs picks up where he left off and not only intercepts a pass but runs it in for six points as well.

1. Dak Prescott throws for 450 yards and 4 touchdowns

There wasn’t much in Dak Prescott’s favor when he headed to Tampa Bay with the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1 of the 2021 season. Not only had he not seen the field for an actual game since Week 5 of the prior year — due to his broken ankle — but he also spent training camp dealing with a shoulder injury.

Prescott went weeks without throwing and then had to face off against the defending Super Bowl champions. While they didn’t get the win, No. 4 did all he could to put his club in a position to steal one. He threw it 58 times, completing 42 of those attempts for 403 yards and three touchdowns. He even set them up for a go-ahead field goal with less than two minutes remaining — but then Brady did what Brady does.

This season, Prescott is healthy with no ailments to slow him down. That doesn’t mean things are looking perfect either.

Dallas already lost starting left tackle Tyron Smith and they’re going to be without Michael Gallup or James Washington. That means Prescott will have a very inexperienced receiving corps. However, he will have his No. 1 guy in CeeDee Lamb as well as tight end Dalton Schultz who has been great the past two seasons.

On top of that, both Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard are dangerous in the passing game. For those reasons, Prescott should be able to move the ball and this final bold prediction is that he tops his output from 2021 with 450 yards and four touchdowns.