Big Facts: 0-5 vs. Brady; But Perfect vs. SB Champs

Only Super Bowl champion to bring back all 22 starters

It is a tough task to repeat as Super Bowl champions, but Tampa Bay is already off to a great start in making a second consecutive run. This offseason, the Bucs front office completed the task of returning all 22 starters from both sides of the football and 56 players total between the active roster and practice squad. It marks the first time in the Super Bowl era that a reigning champion has returned every single starter from the year prior.

New RB Had Career-High vs. Tampa - Signed this week to help add depth to the Cowboys' running back roster, Corey Clement is expected to contribute more on special teams. But he's got some adversity to his game, both as a runner and pass-catcher. In fact, Clement's career-high for receptions in a game occurred against the Bucs in Tampa Bay, when he caught five passes for 55 yards in 2018 as a member of the Eagles. Clement also scored a rushing TD in that game against the Bucs.

Cowboys haven't seen Gronk's TD spike – For all the touchdowns Rob Gronkowski has scored in his career – 101 including playoffs – he's yet to find the end zone against the Cowboys. To his credit, he's only played Dallas twice but had 11 catches on 12 targets in the two combined wins.

Brady is perfect vs. Cowboys – The Cowboys have faced Brady five times in his career – all with the Patriots – but they've never knocked off the future Hall of Famer. The last meeting between Brady and the Cowboys occurred in 2019, with the Patriots winning 13-9. Oddly enough, in three of the losses to Brady's Patriots, the Cowboys failed to even score a touchdown.

Third meeting ever between Dallas and Tampa Bay in Week 1 – Thursday marks the third-ever Week 1 matchup between the Cowboys and Bucs to start a season. In 2001, rookie Quincy Carter made his debut against the Bucs, losing 10-6 at Texas Stadium. Later in the decade, Tony Romo and the Cowboys went into Tampa Bay and cruised to a 34-21 win.

Cowboys have never lost to a defending champion in Week 1 – It doesn't happen often, but throughout the course of history, the Cowboys are a perfect 3-0 when starting a season against the champs. The Cowboys beat the Giants back in 2012 on a rare Wednesday night game against New York. In 1992, they beat Washington in Week 1, a kickstart to their own Super Bowl season that year. And in 1983, the Cowboys also beat Washington on the road, 31-30 in Week 1 despite being down by 20 points at halftime.

Tampa Bay Defense had most team takeaways and points off turnovers in NFL

On their way to the second Super Bowl win in organization history, the Buccaneers relied heavily on a talented defense to get them there. Tampa Bay led the NFL in team takeaways (32) and points off takeaways (142) through both the regular season and the playoffs, and it wasn't even close. The next highest team in takeaways was Miami with 29 and Baltimore scored the second most off turnovers with 106, 36 points less than the Buccaneers.

Antonio Brown needs 159 yards to surpass Michael Irvin's career receiving yards

It has been a highly polarizing career and a winding road for wide receiver Antonio Brown. Regardless, he has been an unstoppable offensive weapon for much of his tenure in the NFL and currently sits 31st in all-time receiving yards. Entering Thursday night, he is just 89 yards to move into 30th on that list and 159 yards to pass Cowboys legend Michael Irvin's career mark.

Kellen Moore and Ndamukong Suh played together in Detroit

Buccaneers defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is entering his 12th year terrorizing opposing offenses and wreaking havoc in the backfield. He started his career with five impressive seasons with the team that drafted him, the Detroit Lions. Where for his final three seasons there, he was teammates with current Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Moore has looked across the sideline and seen Suh plenty during his career, and if that wasn't enough, so has offensive line coach Joe Philbin. Suh was acquired by Philbin during his final offseason as the head coach for the Miami Dolphins.

Prescott already owns the record for most passing yards in an opener

Two years ago, to the day Wednesday, Dak Prescott set a new franchise-best mark with 405 passing yards in a season opener against the New York Giants. His 2019 triumph dethroned Troy Aikman's previous record of 362 yards against Washington in 1999. However, outside of that one instance, Prescott has not been held under 268 yards in his other four debuts and holds a record of 2-3 in openers throughout his career.

Every draft pick made the initial 53-man roster for the second straight year

As the Cowboys enter Week One, each of their picks from the most recent NFL draft made the roster for the second straight season. A normally rare instance, that marks just the eighth time this has happened since the 1989 season. Along with the influx of 11 total draft picks, Dallas did not have an undrafted free agent make the roster for the first time since 2016 due to veteran acquisitions. This season's roster is made up of 17.0% rookies, 2.5% higher than the organizational average but down 1.9% from a year ago.

Dallas is tied with Denver for the NFL-best all-time opening day record

Entering 2021, Dallas is tied with the Denver Broncos for the NFL's best all-time opening day win percentage (.648). Each team owns a record of 39-21-1 during the opening week of the regular season and the 39 wins ranks sixth in league history. Much of Dallas' success came in the Tom Landry era with a 22-6 record, including an NFL record 17-straight wins in a season opener. Thursday marks the third time that Dallas and Tampa Bay have met in the opening week.