The Bucs and Cowboys start the 2021 season off in style
Dak Prescott returned as a slightly different (but still very good) QB, while Tom Brady and Mike McCarthy were extremely on brand. Here are our takeaways from the 2021 kickoff game.
I didn’t have high expectations for the first game of the 2021 season. After too many kickoff games that would only appeal to an energy vampire like Colin Robinson, I was fully anticipating the Buccaneers would roll to a big enough lead by the third quarter that I could watch the new episode of What We Do in the Shadows live.
But the Bucs and Cowboys had other plans, which was a pleasant departure from the more recent season openers, which have either been a defensive slugfest or the Chiefs scoring at will against an overmatched opponent.
The game was fun, competitive, and a little controversial, even if the end — when Tom Brady got the ball back, down 1, with 1:24 left to play — was more predictable than a Hallmark Christmas movie.
That gives me a little hope that the rest of this week’s slate — the matchups aren’t too enticing on paper besides Browns-Chiefs and maybe Steelers-Bills — will match that same chaotic energy ...
… or maybe I’m just swept up in the excitement of an actually good Thursday night game. Who knows. Check back with us on Monday, and we’ll see if my newfound optimism for Week 1 was warranted or not.
For now, keep reading for Christian’s in-depth analysis from the Bucs’ nail-biting win over the Cowboys. Oh, and he has beer thoughts too. — SH
3 things we learned from the NFL’s season opener
Football is back. Dak Prescott is back. Tom Brady is back and doing the kind of Tom Brady things that cause Dak Prescott to make this face:
Thursday’s season opener set a high bar for the 2021 season. A showdown on a sticky Florida night between the Buccaneers and Cowboys alternated between sloppy and graceful as each team exchanged stupid penalties, baffling turnovers and, in the end, game-changing drives. The defending champions escaped with a 31-29 win, but Dallas made a major statement behind Prescott’s resplendent return to the field.
Let’s talk about what we saw at Raymond James Stadium last night.
Tom Brady’s gonna make this Antonio Brown thing work
Brown was on a Hall of Fame trajectory before he trashed his own legacy with a series of terrible (and occasionally criminal) decisions. He’d played only 11 total games the last two years and turned 33 years old this August, making it fair to question the impact he’d have on a Buccaneer offense in which he’d ostensibly play third fiddle behind Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.
If Thursday night is any indication, Tom Brady — his quarterback for every one of those games in 2019 and 2020 (57 catches, seven touchdowns) — won’t let him fade away. Brady targeted the former All-Pro early and often in an offense designed to free him both along the sideline and over the middle of the field. Head coach Bruce Arians instituted a steady regimen of pre-snap motion and play-action dropbacks to create space for his WR3. It worked en route to 71 receiving yards … in the first quarter alone.
Brown’s big day was a product of Tampa’s embarrassment of riches at the skill positions. Here, the Cowboys make things exceedingly easy for Brady and Brown as cornerback Jourdan Lewis runs with Brown across the field, only to immediately peel off at the threat of Evans cutting inside and torching Dallas with a deep route:
But Brown also did work lined up near the sideline. Even without motion or some play-obscuring fakes; turns out he can still straight-up outrun guys!
He was even useful as a decoy. Here’s Brown going in motion to create some extra space to Brady’s right, allowing the 44-year-old QB to roll out and hit Rob Gronkowski for a touchdown … even though Gronk and Chris Godwin are basically sharing the same three square yards of turf at the goal line:
Brown finished his day with five catches on seven targets for 121 yards and even snuck in a six-yard sweep out of the backfield. And he might not be the 30+ year old standout who shined the most Thursday night! Gronk finished his season debut with a perfect eight catches on eight targets for 90 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Granted, this was against the Cowboys and a defense that ranked 23rd in DVOA last season, but it’s still a statement to the rest of the league. Brady can still sling it … and he’s got three All-Pro caliber wideouts ready to roast your secondary and a tight end who knows exactly where his QB wants him to be at all times.
Dak Prescott needed a minute to get his shoulder working (and that was fine!)
Prescott’s preseason shoulder injury loomed over the first half of the game. Lobbed passes on the Cowboys’ opening drive invited comparisons to late-stage Ben Roethlisberger. He attempted 13 passes on his first two drives, but only one — his first throw of the game — traveled more than nine yards downfield.
But whatever Prescott’s lack of zip took off the table early, his timing and touch quickly replaced. The rising young veteran didn’t shy away from throws to the sideline, trusting his wideouts to run precise routes and keep their toes in bounds while placing the ball into tight windows. Not even a low snap could break his rhythm for his second touchdown of the night.
His next touchdown to Cooper was even prettier: a 21-yard teardrop right into the wideout’s numbers.
And even though this fourth quarter pass was overturned thanks to a hold, it was pretty much as perfect as it could have been in a crowded pocket:
Prescott’s throws over the middle were more of an adventure, especially early. He threw two different first half passes that should have resulted in red zone interceptions, including this misfire that could have been picked off by at least two different Buccaneers.
However, his lone interception was a perfectly placed rifle burst that should have been a first down if not for CeeDee Lamb’s third drop of the game:
He threw 58 passes for more than 400 yards and three touchdowns. The sore shoulder that nagged him through the preseason ultimately wasn’t a factor. Last year’s dislocated ankle, however, may have been.
Prescott struggled to extend plays with his legs and showed some trepidation when it came to breaking from the pocket and scrambling upfield. This was most apparent in Dallas’ final drive of the first half. After throwing the ball away on first-and-10 at the Tampa 21, the QB broke away from pressure on second down only to double back and get sacked by Shaq Barrett for a loss of 12 yards. One play later he breached the line, but only for four yards before getting chopped down from behind (a holding play erased the gain). On third-and-32 he was sacked again, setting up a 60-yard field goal attempt for Greg Zuerlein. We’ll reflect on *that* bullshit in a moment.
After averaging eight yards per scramble in 2020 and 7.3 in 2019, Prescott gained only two yards per carry on non-designed runs (though he picked up seven on a run-pass option in the red zone). Running wasn’t a major part of his game in the past — he’d only averaged 19 rush yards per game in his career — but this is worth keeping an eye on as he builds confidence in his ankle this fall.
Mike McCarthy is still very much Mike McCarthy
With 20 seconds to go in the first half, McCarthy stared down what felt like an obvious decision. His Cowboys faced fourth-and-31 at the Tampa 42-yard line. He could turn to Zuerlein, his big-legged kicker, for a 60-yard field goal that would cut the Bucs’ lead to 21-19 at halftime. A miss, from a player who’d already biffed a 31-yard attempt and an extra point, would give Brady the ball with something like 15 seconds left at midfield.
Or he could cut his losses, punt the ball away, and go into halftime to regroup. Even with a timeout left, Tampa would have little choice but to kneel out the clock.
After briefly sending Brian Anger out and forcing the Bucs to burn their last clock stoppage, McCarthy turned to his specialist for a kick only 19 players — including Zuerlein — have ever made in NFL history. Amazon’s advanced stats put his odds of making it at roughly 1 in 5.
Zuerlein missed, Brady took over at midfield. Though the Buccaneers were unable to wring any points from their brief drive, legions of Packers fans turned their frustration toward Texas and shrieked “SEE. THIS IS THE SHIT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT.”
The Cowboys somehow moved on from Jason Garrett and got someone even more inscrutable.
Alright, let’s talk about some beer.
The death of a brewery (but not the beer)
I’ve lived in Wisconsin since 2010. At no point in the past 11+ years has Ale Asylum not been a part of it.
When I first visited Madison, the three beers friends told me I had to try were New Glarus’s Spotted Cow, Great Dane’s Crop Circle Wheat, and AA’s Hopalicious. My booze selection expanded wildly in swooping spirals in the years since — turns out Wisconsin is a great place to erase the memories of Vanderbilt football — but Ale Asylum remained one of the corner pieces of that puzzle. If you were working on a tailgate or a Brewers game or just celebrating the end of a week, it was a great place to start.
(Spotted Cow remains in the rotation, though usurped by roughly a dozen other New Glarus beers. Time hasn’t been nearly as kind to Great Dane’s offerings.)
The first trip after my daughter’s birth for anything other than groceries or a doctor’s appointment was to their brewery for some stress-relieving day drinking. When my buddy Ben, a New England beer snob of the highest degree, came to town his first stop was the headquarters where he could pound four or five Unshadowed hefeweizens. Every time I go to Woodman’s 4,000-square foot liquor store without a plan and get overwhelmed by rack upon rack of Midwestern suds, I knew I could fall back on whatever messily-labeled seasonal AA had to offer.
And now it’s coming to an end. The brewery and its attached restaurant, nestled in a facility less than a decade old, are up for auction. The beers and all the intellectual property related are as well. Ale Asylum may survive its sudden liquidation, but the form it takes is still unknown. No matter how it comes out, it won’t be the same.
Ale Asylum was a landmark in a drinking town. It was Madison’s first brewery brewery — i.e. not a brewpub, a place that bottled/canned its own stuff — in decades. It was a pioneer in turning palate-burning levels of bitterness into something wonderful. Hopalicious was the rare, wittily-named beer that actually delivered on its promise. Yes, it was hoppy as hell. Yes, it somehow turned what should have been carbonated Pine Sol into something you’d drink three or four at a time.
It embraced the brotherhood of brewing by lending a hand to other local startups, most notably when it helped Karben4 — another truly stellar Wisconsin beermaker — take over the old office park digs it left behind when it opted for a facility befitting a budding national brand. It donated generously to the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund when the world went pear shaped. It was a staple at massive beer festivals (Great Taste of the Midwest) and smaller, local ones that attracted a fraction of those crowds.
This bolstered its status as a Madison original; a standby on even the shortest taplists around the county. You’d find Miller Lite at one end of the lineup and a handle for Velveteen Habit or Madtown Nut Brown on the other.
They were craft and mainstream at the same time, at least in the relatively tiny orbit of Wisconsin’s capital. While other old souls like Capital and Sprecher either turned a blind eye to quality control or focused on craft soda, AA chugged along with resilient creativity. The brewery was home to the company’s standard rotations and a rainbow of test taps where you could experiment with whatever seven-barrel concoctions the brewing team came up with that week. Sometimes you’d wind up with a beverage that invoked fond memories of pulling weeds or compost heaps. Other times you’d wind up with a Belgian tripel that absolutely fucking ruled.
That’s the spirit that’s likely going to disappear from my local beer scene.
It’s not as though this was fully unexpected. AA brewed out of a wonderful and massive new facility built in 2012. It’s adjacent to the Dane County Airport and not much else, which meant restaurant receipts were going to be lacking no matter the menu. It’s capable of making 60,000 barrels of beer each year, but hasn’t hit a third of that capacity in any of the past five years. AA’s beverages have had to fight for daylight in an increasingly crowded Wisconsin marketplace where every town of 5,000+ has a local brewery and out-of-state vendors take a look at our drinking culture and instinctively begin salivating.
This was all before a pandemic struck, which, counterintuitively, appeared to send Ale Asylum a lifeline. The company’s new FVCK COVID extensions made enough headlines to earn nationwide distribution and was “unquestionably the most successful” brew to come out of Madison’s east side. It didn’t matter that the beer itself tasted like someone was trying to make a better ale and forgot the ingredients toward the end. Or maybe it did, since, you know, the entire brewery’s up for sale 15 months later.
I dropped by the Asylum last week — after taking someone to the airport because, again, the brewery isn’t *near* anything. The three-person staff, cut down from 20ish on a normal day, were busy emptying the tanks on whatever was left. The kitchen had been cleaned out a week earlier, and the typically-robust selection of six packs and bombers to go flew at half mast.
The bartenders approached their uncertain futures with grim humor, keeping glasses filled while acknowledging the end was coming sooner than later. Operations were supposed to cease sometime in October. With kegs blowing and no backups to be found, a lack of inventory could force them to unemployment before the Packers take the field.
In the end, AA’s ambition turned into its undoing. It’s 45,000 square foot brewery/taproom/restaurant — a building that was leased, not owned — was too much. Operational costs overcame local demand, even as smaller operations (a few better, many worse) stayed afloat.
That, in the end, will be the company’s legacy. Ale Asylum set up other beermakers’ success. It proved local brewers could be more than just brewpubs. It carved a path for contract brewing in central Wisconsin. If you’ve ever drank some pretentious garbage from Untitled Art or bought a slightly generic but suspiciously delicious six-pack from Aldi there’s a good chance it was brewed at Octopi’s ever-growing facility in nearby Waunakee.
Ale Asylum will continue in name. What it did for Madison, Wisconsin, and national craft brewing won’t be replicated in spirit, because it can’t be. Ale Asylum embodied all the best things about beer culture in the Badger State. Now it’s leaving because of a swarm of factors that eventually took the brand under like a pack of hornets (or, possibly, MRDR HRNTs).
That, for lack of a better word, sucks. I’ll raise a Hopalicious, or an Oktillion, or a Keep ‘er Movin, or a Tripel Nova in Ale Asylum’s honor. While I still can. — CD