ARLINGTON, Texas — The evening began weird for the Dallas Cowboys and ended with the same exact energy. Joey Porter Jr. was ruled out at the last minute with a stomach illness that resulted in him vomiting to the point he had to leave with a staffer holding a trash can next to him as he was escorted home.

And then, over the course of four quarters, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers threw up a total of 241 rushing yards with two touchdowns and undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels made plays he shouldn't have been able to make.

"Disappointed, for sure," said head coach Brian Schottenheimer of the 24-16 loss to the winless Buccaneers on his own field. "I told the guys in [the locker room] that it was a missed opportunity. We didn't really play well in all three phases, and certainly not good enough to win a game in the National Football League. And they know that."

"Again, it comes down to this being the National Football League, and it's going to come down to the fourth quarter. And even with as poorly as we performed, we had a chance to still get back in and try to win the game, and we came up short."

Coming up short for the Cowboys, over the course of four quarters, looked like a multitude of self-inflicted wounds that included a fumble on a kickoff return that resulted in a touchdown by the Buccaneers, a tip drill interception on a critical offensive drive that led to a field goal for Todd Bowles' group, and a second tip drill interception on the Cowboys' final offensive drive of the game deep in Buccaneer territory.

Add untimely penalties and a dropped potential pick-six with an eight-point deficit and five minutes left to play in regulation, and it was all simply too much for the Cowboys to overcome — effectively making themselves worse than a team that, on paper, should've gotten boatraced at AT&T Stadium.

Instead, that boat capsized in Arlington on Thursday Night Football, and it's enough to make Schottenheimer open the door to assessing the whole operation, possible changes included, over the next several days as they begin their mini-bye week — including within his own coaching staff.

"Yeah, I'm going to look at everything," he said. "I'll spend countless hours trying to figure it out and getting a chance to step back, look at these five games, and see what we need to improve. ... Yeah, I think we evaluate everything, but at the end of the day, we're five games in. I am disappointed in the way we performed this evening as a football team, and that's just going to be one part of the process.

"We're going to look at all five games and get a chance to slow down our process and look at every detail and see what we need to improve."

The Cowboys have proven an ability to bounce back from losses with good showings that lead to wins.

That said, what they continually fail to establish is a means of keeping the train on the tracks when they get it there and, seeing as that's the only way they'll be able to put together a meaningful win streak, there's plenty to sift through.

"Yeah, I mean that's the key. We got to stack wins," said Schottenheimer. "And like I said, this weekend's going to be a process. We're going to go through the process. We're going to figure it out. We're going to put on the tape. We're going to watch the tape.

"We're going to look at the stats. We're going to look at everything and we're going to make some decisions that we believe will give us the best chance to pick back up and play well next week. We're five games in, and we didn't plan on being 2-3. I am disappointed by that, for sure, but we're just getting started. There's a lot of football left and we got to play better. We know that."

The loss marks the second time in only three games in which the Cowboys failed to start fast and, again, failed to finish when given the chance to do so against the odds they stacked against themselves throughout the game by way of their list of mistakes.

"This game, the NFL, comes down to finishing games," he added. "And the way these guys work, the way this brotherhood is, the culture, the way the connection of the guys in that room are, is special. And because of that, I see a group of young men that are motivated to get it right."

Had the Cowboys not taken the cheese against the Buccaneers, they'd be 3-2 heading into their matchup against The Cheese in 10 days from now.

Instead, they've returned to being under .500 and they'll need to do some soul searching to determine exactly how sick of this up-and-down roller coaster ride they truly are.