Cowboys defense lays an egg again in bad loss to Buccaneers: TNF winners and losers

In one of the bigger upsets of a young NFL season, the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers sashayed into North Texas and knocked off the Dallas Cowboys 24-16 in a game that generally wasn’t as close as the final score indicates.

The win helped the Bucs avert an 0-5 start that would have ended their season – statistically anyway – while a Cowboys team that was battered, literally and figuratively, will have to stew amid their own disappointing 2-3 record over the next 10 days before it heads to Lambeau Field for a “Sunday Night Football” date with the Green Bay Packers and, potentially, old friend Micah Parsons.

A lot to unpack here beyond the final score. Your winners and losers from “Thursday Night Football,” Week 5 version:

He made history Sunday, becoming the first undrafted rookie quarterback since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to start a game in Week 4 or earlier. Week 5 was even better, Daniels becoming the first undrafted rookie in the common draft era (since 1967) to complete his first eight passes in a game – that occurring on a 15-play, 73-yard TD drive that opened the game and set the tone. Daniels finished with 189 yards and a TD on the way to his first NFL W.

Make no mistake, they’re still on life support. But no team in NFL history has overcome an 0-5 start to reach the postseason – whereas one club (the 1992 San Diego Chargers) has surmounted a 1-4 record to advance beyond the regular season. We’re saying there’s a chance … especially in the historically middling NFC South.

Slightly more ventilated with the Bucs’ losing skid over. Still, after this year’s start and last season’s 2-7 finish (following a 6-2 start), Tampa Bay’s fifth-year head coach still probably has his work cut out for him if he wants to return in 2027.

Had the Bucs lost, which would have effectively ended their season, their longtime GM would surely have been fielding quite a few calls from peers checking on the availability of players like WR Chris Godwin and NT Vita Vea ahead of next month’s trade deadline. And that could still come to pass … but Licht will at least get to enjoy the next week and a half, at least.

Dallas’ perennial Pro Bowl O-lineman made his 2026 regular-season debut after a training camp thumb injury, which required surgery, cost him the first month of the season.

The Cowboys’ alleged wunderkind rookie DC, who’s all of 34, has not lived up to the preseason hype, unable to remediate a unit that undermined this franchise a year ago – or, to quote Jerry Jones after last season, Dallas still hasn’t “played a lick of defense.” Thursday, the Cowboys couldn’t contain an inexperienced quarterback or a previously sputtering offense, which generated a season-high 419 yards at AT&T Stadium.

He struggled to deal with the Bucs’ pass rush, rendering him incapable of sufficiently compensating for Dallas’ deficient D. Prescott’s interception on the Cowboys’ first possession of the third quarter also short-circuited a promising drive and led to a Bucs TD that put them up 21-10. The pick he threw on his final pass ended any shot his team had at a late comeback bid.

Yaya Diaby with the @Buccaneers INT on the tip drill 🚨@TBvsDAL on Prime Video
Stream on @NFLPluspic.twitter.com/8hIfJ8jP14

— NFL (@NFL) October 9, 2026

Four days after a career game in Houston (17 catches for 189 yards and the game-winning TD reception), he injured his quad in the fourth quarter Thursday, the worst part of an already quiet night (2 catches, 9 yards). About the only good news here is that Lamb has 10 days to potentially get ready for Dallas’ date at Green Bay.

Let’s start by acknowledging that a group that includes former players Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tony Gonzalez, Richard Sherman and Andrew Whitworth – and anchored by Charissa Thompson – is typically an entertaining, self-deprecating and insightful bunch, and one willing to experiment and take risks on a platform that’s only in its fifth season. But the last two weeks haven’t been pretty.

Prior to the Cowboys-Bucs game, Sherman wildly theorized that newly acquired Dallas CB Joey Porter Jr. didn’t play as part of a negotiating tactic aimed at securing a contract extension.

“I’m very interested in how this is gonna go,” Sherman said on the pre-game set, while munching popcorn for dramatic effect. “The Dallas Cowboys are dealing with a little bit of what the Pittsburgh Steelers were dealing with. Hey, is he gonna play? Is he not? Is he sick? Is he not? Is his back hurt? Is it not? Negotiations, this is a business.”

He later added: “Maybe if they (Dallas) would have gave him a new contract, maybe he would have been a little healthier today.”

Sherman eventually admitted he was merely speculating after sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung detailed the illness of Porter, who was reportedly vomiting prior to the game and left the stadium alongside a team staffer who was carrying a trash can.

This episode occurred a week after Prime Video’s crew largely avoided parsing the background of controversial Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who settled more than two dozen lawsuits stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct. Gonzalez even went so far as to say, “You have to take your hat off to (Watson),” who’s led Cleveland to a 3-1 start and share of first place in the AFC North.

“I’m so proud and happy for him.”

Oof. And woof.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cowboys defense lays an egg again in bad loss to Buccaneers: TNF winners and losers