The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Dallas Cowboys 24-16 on Thursday Night Football at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for their first win of the season. Running back Bucky Irving ran for a career-high 165 yards and scored twice, on a 5-yard catch and a 1-yard run. Undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels, in just his second NFL start, had no turnovers. Tampa Bay trailed 10-7 at halftime, then took the lead for good early in the third quarter.
Daniels is starting because Baker Mayfield has a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand. The AP said Mayfield is “expected to be sidelined at least one more game.” Daniels had lost his first start, 17-14 to Green Bay, last Sunday.
The result moves Tampa Bay to 1-4 and Dallas to 2-3, according to The Associated Press. The AP wrote that the Bucs “finally found some footing in a season that started with expectations of winning the NFC South.” NFL.com noted that they avoided “the franchise’s first 0-5 start since 2013,” and Buccaneers.com called it their first win after four straight one-possession losses.
How the game went
Dallas took the opening possession 70 yards on nine plays and scored on a 1-yard run by Javonte Williams. That made it 7-0.
Tampa Bay answered with a 15-play, 73-yard drive that lasted nearly 11 minutes. It started in the first quarter and ended with Irving’s touchdown catch from Daniels early in the second quarter. NFL.com’s research note said it was the longest drive by time for the Buccaneers since Nov. 4, 2007, and the third-longest since 2000.
The only other score of the half was Dallas kicker Brandon Aubrey’s 41-yard field goal with 21 seconds left in the second quarter, and the Cowboys led 10-7 at halftime.
The third quarter
Dallas scored nothing in the third quarter and Tampa Bay scored 17.
Irving’s longest carry came on the first play of the second half, a 72-yard run. NFL.com called it the NFL’s second-longest rush of the season. On the next play, receiver Emeka Egbuka scored on a 14-yard end-around, a run in which a receiver takes a handoff and sweeps toward the sideline. NFL.com said it was his first career rushing touchdown. That put Tampa Bay ahead 14-10.
Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott then threw his first interception of the night, to Yaya Diaby, on a deflected pass. Daniels followed with a 64-yard completion to Tez Johnson. The AP said “the Dallas defense left Tez Johnson wide open.” Irving scored from the 1-yard line on that drive to make it 21-10.
On the next kickoff, KaVontae Turpin fumbled, and Tampa Bay recovered. The Bucs turned it into a 41-yard field goal by Chase McLaughlin for a 24-10 lead. Before the field goal, the Bucs had converted a third-and-21 from the Dallas 48-yard line, needing 21 yards for a first down, with a 21-yard pass from Daniels to Egbuka, the AP noted.
The fourth quarter
NFL.com reported that, up 24-10 with 8:36 to play (Buccaneers.com’s recap puts the play at 3:53 left, but ESPN’s play log has Dallas’s next touchdown at 5:26, which fits NFL.com’s clock), Tampa Bay went for it on a fourth-down try from the 1-yard line, one yard from a touchdown, instead of kicking a field goal that would have made it 27-10, and running back Sean Tucker was stopped short.
Dallas then drove 99 yards for a touchdown. NFL.com counted it as a 10-play drive, and it ended with a touchdown pass from Prescott to receiver George Pickens. ESPN’s box score lists the pass as 18 yards, as does Buccaneers.com’s summary, whose play-by-play says 17. The AP wrote that it went 13 yards. The Cowboys’ two-point try failed, leaving Tampa Bay ahead 24-16.
NFL.com wrote that Tampa Bay then went three-and-out, meaning it failed to gain a first down and had to give the ball back. Prescott had one more chance, but the AP said his second interception, “off a tipped pass,” helped Tampa Bay clinch the win in the final two minutes. Alex Anzalone made the catch. Irving then broke free on second down, and Daniels knelt to run out the clock.
Standout players
Irving finished with 21 carries and a 7.9-yard average. NFL.com called his 165 yards a career high. According to NFL.com, it was also the third-year back’s first career game with multiple touchdowns.
Daniels, an undrafted free agent who played at Kansas, completed 19 of 25 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked once, for 11 yards. He also rushed seven times for 23 yards. The Bucs ran for 241 yards as a team on 39 carries, a 6.2-yard average. They finished with 419 total yards. NFL.com said the Buccaneers’ lack of turnovers made it their first turnover-free game of the year.
After the win Daniels said: “Six months ago, if you would have told me that my first win would have been on a Thursday night, (Amazon) Prime football game, I don’t know what I would have told you. … Like I keep saying, through all the highs and lows, the bads, the goods, go through every single emotion because at the end of the day, it makes you better and prepares you for any situation that comes down the line.”
NFL.com also drew a comparison from history. It said Daniels “became only the second UDFA quarterback to start and defeat the Cowboys, joining Washington’s Ed Rubbert in 1987.” NFL.com said that 1987 game, a Monday night game during a strike-shortened season, was “the inspiration for the movie ‘The Replacements.'”
Dallas
Prescott was 24 of 42 for 316 yards and a touchdown. The AP said it was his first two-interception game of the season, and his first interceptions since the opener. Pickens had nine catches for 130 yards on 13 targets, according to the box score. Receiver Ryan Flournoy added three catches for 90 yards.
Dallas rushed for 50 yards on 13 carries, and the box score lists three turnovers: the two interceptions and Turpin’s lost fumble. Dallas was 4 of 10 on third down. It also lost the time-of-possession battle by a wide margin, 39:21 for Tampa Bay to 20:39. The Bucs were flagged 14 times for 92 yards, against 7 penalties for 57 yards for Dallas.
Receiver CeeDee Lamb had 17 catches and 189 yards with a touchdown the previous weekend against Houston. Against Tampa Bay he had two catches for 9 yards on five targets, and he later left with an injury, described below.
Cornerback Joey Porter Jr., who arrived in a trade from Pittsburgh last week, did not play. The AP called him a late scratch, and NFL.com said he “was ruled out prior to the game due to an illness.”
NFL.com described the Dallas defense as a “deplorable night,” writing that the closeness of the score “doesn’t truly encapsulate just how problematic Dallas’ defense looked again.”
Dallas coach Brian Schottenheimer said he “didn’t plan on being 2-3, disappointed by that for sure,” and added: “But we’re just getting started. There’s a lot of football left and we’re gonna play better. We know that.”
What the coaches said
Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles, whose team had lost its first four games, framed the win as a restart. “We lost the first quarter of the season,” he said, according to the AP. “We didn’t lose the second, third or fourth. We’ve still got to play those. So we started the second quarter tonight. It’s a long way to climb out, but at the same time, we’re upbeat and if we played as hard and played as effective, we’ll be OK.”
Buccaneers.com quoted Bowles as saying: “We played good complementary football in all three phases.” Of the quarterback, he said, “Jalon did an excellent job of taking care of the football and the defense played well.” He also said: “We got one win and we’ve got to get three more to go to try to even this thing up.”
NFL.com also wrote that Bowles “went down to a knee on the sidelines during the end of the game in a concerning scene.” NFL.com did not say why. Bowles spoke to reporters after the game.
Injuries and next games
The AP reported that Lamb exited the game with a quadriceps injury, that Cowboys left tackle Tyler Guyton left with a back issue in the second half, and that defensive back Alijah Clark left with a hamstring injury in the first half and did not return. Bucs left tackle Tristan Wirfs was sidelined by cramps in the second half. The severity of Lamb’s quadriceps injury was not reported.
Mayfield’s exact return date is unknown.
Both teams play next on Oct. 18. The Buccaneers host Pittsburgh, and the Cowboys visit Green Bay, according to the AP.