Buccaneers beat Cowboys with a little last-minute luck

TAMPA

The Buccaneers found a way to end their red zone woes. It may not be conventional or even advisable, but it's the way of the Bucs.

Struggling all season to score when they get inside the opponent's 20-yard line, Tampa Bay was perfect Sunday in its 10-6 victory over Dallas.

They got there once and took it into the end zone.

How's that for efficiency?

There's nothing routine about these Bucs, their rookie quarterback and old-school coach, Lovie Smith.

If there is a football heaven, we have to believe the occupants are celebrating, This was the good guys over the bad guys in the minds of most people.

Dallas seems to be arguing with the world, and the Bucs show love for each other and don't criticize a teammate when he makes a mistake.

Ugly never looked so beautiful, and luck never hid the fact who was going to be the beneficiary of the good fortune it was handing out, after a fortunate penalty against the Cowboys erased a likely game-ending mistake by Jameis Winston at the goal line.

"I thought it was pretty the entire time. I've never seen an ugly win," Smith said. "For guys and ladies and who have been around here for awhile, Buc ball, that's what it's about, grinding it out and finding a way at the end."

The defense is to be commended for sending the Cowboys to their seventh straight loss and pushing the Buccaneers to 4-5.

In the last 1:07 of the game, Winston went from hero to goat to hero again, and Smith checked his pulse.

Trailing 6-3, Winston launched himself over the Cowboys defense and landed in the endzone. But he forgot to take the football with him.

What happened next could be attributed to divine intervention. Dallas safety Jeff Heath, who intercepted Winston twice, was whistled for defensive holding and Tampa get a first down at the one.

Given a second chance, Winston waltzed into the endzone on a naked bootleg.

"What fumble, I don't remember that," Winston joked after the game. "The touchdown was magical. Had a great fake, a great call, found the way into the end zone. The play before that I have no recollection."

Smith was a little more stoic, but reminded us that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

His Love-isms are starting to resonate with the players, and the wins are beginning to validate his words.

"Guys just continue to play hard, and that's how it's supposed to happen. You keep doing things the right way, eventually you see some results," Smith said. "We're not there yet, and there are penalties we need to eliminate, but we're making progress."

Offensively, this was not an artistic endeavor. But give the Bucs' maligned defense some credit -- it did not allow Dallas backup quarterback Matt Cassel to have as memorable a day as those other backup quarterbacks did against the Bucs this season.

"You got to give them credit, because overall they were stingy against the run, did a good job on the pass and then we didn't do a great job, I don't believe, on third down situations," Cassel said.

Last week against the Giants, Smith made Sterling Moore and Jude Adjei-Barimah his starting cornerbacks, and attributed their play to this victory. Moore spent the majority of the game covering Dez Bryant, who was held in check with five catches for 45 yards though he did drop more than a few passes as he works his way back from injury.

"The changes we made at the cornerback position has helped us a lot," Smith said. "We believe in what we're doing. We haven't been Pro-Bowl ready as quick as everyone would like us to be, but it takes time."

It was a close win, and some might say lucky, but this Bucs team has shown significant improvement despite all those problems on defense. If those issues are resolved, Lovie's Bucs could be seeing a lot more beauty in all this ugliness.

This story was originally published November 15, 2015 at 7:10 PM with the headline "Buccaneers beat Cowboys with a little last-minute luck ."