ARLINGTON, Texas — Bucky Irving ran for a career-high 165 yards and scored twice, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Dallas Cowboys 24-16 on Thursday night for their first win of the season behind an undrafted rookie quarterback making just his second start.
Jalon Daniels threw a touchdown pass to Irving in the first half and directed a turnover-free offence while filling in for Baker Mayfield, who is expected to miss at least one more game with a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand. Daniels finished 19 of 25 for 189 yards, and added 23 rushing yards as Tampa Bay controlled the ball for long stretches.
The Buccaneers set the tone with a 15-play, 73-yard touchdown drive that consumed the final 10:44 of the first quarter and ended with Irving’s 5-yard touchdown catch. After Dallas briefly steadied itself, the game broke open on the first play of the second half: Irving tore through the line for 72 yards, receiver Emeka Egbuka scored on a 14-yard jet sweep, and Tampa Bay was suddenly in charge.
The sequence that decided it came moments later. Dak Prescott threw his first interception, the Dallas defence left Tez Johnson wide open for a 64-yard catch, and Irving plunged in from a yard out for a 21-10 lead. KaVontae Turpin’s fumble on the ensuing kickoff led to a Tampa Bay field goal, although only after the Buccaneers converted a third-and-21 with a 21-yard Daniels pass to Egbuka.
Dallas made it tense late. Prescott led a 99-yard drive and threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to George Pickens in the fourth quarter, cutting the margin to one score. His second interception, off a tipped pass in the final two minutes, ended the comeback and sealed Tampa Bay’s win. Prescott finished 24 of 42 for 316 yards, with Pickens catching nine passes for 130 yards.
The contrast at receiver told the story of the Cowboys’ night. A week after CeeDee Lamb caught 17 passes for 189 yards and the winning touchdown against Houston, he was held to two catches for nine yards and left the game with a quadriceps injury. Dallas fell to 2-3 with a second home defeat, having allowed at least 20 points in a twelfth straight game dating back to last season.
Tampa Bay, 1-4 after starting the season with expectations of winning the NFC South, finally looked like that team for a night: patient on offence, opportunistic on defence and carried by a running back who averaged 7.9 yards a carry. Head coach Todd Bowles praised his team’s complementary football and said the win could mark the start of the season’s second quarter. For an undrafted rookie quarterback, it was a first win he will not forget. For the Cowboys, it was the kind of loss that lingers.
What comes next does neither team any favours. Tampa Bay’s reward is a meeting with the Pittsburgh Steelers on October 18, likely still without Mayfield, which means Daniels may have to do this again against a defence built to confuse young quarterbacks. Dallas, meanwhile, has allowed opposing quarterbacks to post passer ratings of at least 99.1 in each of the first five weeks, and the schedule sends Green Bay’s Jordan Love and then Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts at that defence next. The Cowboys say there is a lot of football left, and there is. Thursday showed how much of it will be spent fixing the same problems.
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