Dunn suffered an ankle sprain and a pinched nerve in his neck last Sunday against Seattle. He has not participated in a full practice this week and was limited again Thursday. But Dunn, 33, sounded optimistic about his chances of recovering in time to play against the Cowboys.

"I think people are kind of surprised I'm moving around. I can turn my neck and different things," Dunn said. "I'm all right. I'm good.

"I turned my ankle in the first quarter and in the third quarter, I hit my head a little bit. I think that night I really felt the effects when I got home from my hits. So it was one of those games where I took a couple shots. But if I have some days off. I'm good.'

With fullbacks B.J. Askew out with a hamstring strain and Byron Storer on injured reserve, tailback Earnest Graham has been asked to play more fullback, thereby increasing the workload for Dunn, who has rushed 35 times in the past two games, including a 115-yard performance against Carolina.

"You know what? You want that," Dunn said of the workload. "I want that and I just think that was the situation at that time but things happen. We all get nicked up. It's all part of football. I've played long enough. I can handle it."

Bucs coach Jon Gruden said the mounting injuries to their running backs could become a factor.

"We're limited. We might be in trouble," Gruden said. "Trouble might not be a good word but we might have to use a different form of attack. Unfortunately, a lot of our receivers are hurt, so being in three or four or five wides is in question right now, but we'll have 11. We will have 11."

Meanwhile, receiver Joey Galloway was limited in practice Thursday but is hopeful he will play Sunday at Dallas. When Galloway does return, he likely will have to change positions. Gruden has said the Bucs won't move Antonio Bryant from Galloway's former position.

"I have a role in the offense, and that role is to be able to play any position, as all the receivers do," Galloway said. "So wherever Coach chooses to use me or use him. That's his call. But when I'm on the field, I'll do everything I can to help Antonio and every other guy out there."

--The Bucs are catching teams at the right time.

Tampa Bay blasted the Seahawks last Sunday night in part because they were without starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

This week, the Bucs catch the Dallas Cowboys without starting quarterback Tony Romo, who is out with a broken right pinkie finger on his throwing hand.

Taking his place is 40-year-old Brad Johnson, who struggled last week in a devastating loss to the St. Louis Rams.

The Bucs - and particularly coach Jon Gruden - are familiar with Johnson, who won a Super Bowl in Tampa Bay in 2002 and played five seasons here.

Johnson's lack of mobility could be a real issue against a Bucs defense that is swarming to the football and is fourth in the NFL in points allowed with 15.3 per game.

Johnson knows with games against the Giants and Redskins coming up, the Cowboys can ill-afford to lose Sunday's meeting with Tampa Bay, who is tied with Carolina for first place in the NFC South at 5-2.

"Last week, we didn't play very well across the board," Johnson said. "We really struggled, especially on first down. When you look at the third down conversions, we were third-and-8, third-and-10, third-and-12 most of the day, so it's a tough living.

"We had a couple of turnovers early in the game and the game got out of hand real fast. We just had a hard time recovering from it. We struggled, I struggled the whole bit. We were just playing catch up ball the whole way."

Gruden said the Bucs can't focus too much on Johnson because the Cowboys have so many other weapons on offense.

"It will be great to see Brad again. A great Buccaneer," Gruden said. "We got to prepare for a lot. They got 15, 16 Pro Bowlers. It's a tough place to play and obviously they've been disappointed in their results the past couple of weeks, but they've got a loaded roster and a great talented staff and we'll do the best we can.

"We've missed our quarterback. We've missed (Joey) Galloway and our fullbacks. We've missed a lot of our players, too. I can't comment on their situation. They can have their own press conference and resolve that."

Offensively, the Bucs have righted the ship behind the solid play of quarterback Jeff Garcia, who is coming off a 310-yard passing performance against Seattle. More importantly, Garcia has not thrown in an interception in the last two games, something that plagued Brian Griese before his injury.

The game will also feature the return to Dallas of Antonio Bryant, who is coming off a 115-yard performance against the Seahawks.

"This is a team that has 13 or 14 Pro Bowlers," Bryant said. "You can't really go in there and look at this team and say, 'They're down. This is the best time to get them.' You don't know. This is a successful team. You've got a guy like Brad Johnson, who's been to a Super Bowl, and he knows how to win. This is a great organization and they pride themselves on being a signature type team. They're going to play big-time football. That's the best part about it. We get to go under their tent of exposure and get some exposure of our own."

The Bucs will try to control the ball on the ground with Warrick Dunn and Earnest Graham, dominating time of possession and slowing down the pass rush - much the way the Rams did.

Defensively, Tampa Bay will try to continue its penchant for stopping the run and try to make Johnson beat them.

"The pass rush can be defined in terms of sacks or pressure and hits on the quarterback also," Gruden said. "I'm talking legal hits is a big part of pass rush. If you can make the quarterback fear right or left, if you can disrupt his timing, his vision and his rhythm, that's a good pass rush. A great pass rush is getting three guys on the quarterback, but we've had some good individual rushes. We've done better in our gaming. Our stunts are getting better and Monte Kiffin's done a nice job with the staff with some created blitz use, but if we stop the run we're able to do the things that good pass rushing teams do. The crowd helps us out a lot. Our guys get off on the noise and they like that."

SERIES HISTORY: 11th regular-season meeting. Cowboys lead the series 7-3, but the Bucs have won three of the past four meetings. The two teams last met on Thanksgiving Day in 2006 with the Cowboys winning 38-10. Four of the past seven regular season games have been decided by five points or less.