Was it weariness having to play on a Thursday night after two weekends of physical games and brutal travel? Was it overlooking a team that appeared on paper to be an easy opponent?
Whatever the case, the Dallas Cowboys suffered a prime-time embarrassment, losing at home to the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their backup quarterback, 24-16.
The Cowboys just weren't able to figure out Tampa Bay's game plan on both sides of the ball. By relying on the run game on offense and causing confusion with the blitz on defense, the Buccaneers dominated the time of possession, 39:21 to 20:39, and outgained the home side in total yards, 419 to 366. The big difference, though, came in the turnover column, as the Cowboys gave away the ball three times, two interceptions and a fumble, but failed to record any takeaways of their own.
Dallas' same defensive woes against the ground game continued as well, with Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving averaging 7.9 yards per carry for 165 rushing yards, while the squad as a whole totaled 241. But although that perhaps wasn't a huge surprise, given recent history, the fact that quarterback Jalon Daniels picked apart the defense indeed was. Making only his second career start, the undrafted free agent completed 76% of his passes for 189 yards and a touchdown for a 110.2 passer rating.
Conversely, Dak Prescott suffered his worst game of the season. Under pressure throughout, he completed only 57.1% of his throws for 316 yards with one touchdown and those two picks for a dismal 69.1 rating. To be fair, both interceptions were catchable with the ball bouncing off his receiver's hands.
After his unbelievable 17-catch, 189-yard performance against the Texans, CeeDee Lamb managed only 2 catches for 9 yards before leaving in the fourth quarter with a quad injury. George Pickens did his part, totaling 130 yards off nine receptions and a touchdown.
But as far as the rushing attack, Javonte Williams picked up only 45 yards on 12 handoffs, of which 26 of those came on the team's opening possession.
First Quarter
The Cowboys didn't waste any time getting on the board, taking the opening kickoff and sprinting 70 yards to the end zone in nine plays and just over four minutes off the clock. And they quickly took advantage of having left guard Tyler Smith back in the lineup for the first time this season. Williams ran the ball up the middle four times, which included a 21-yard scamper as well as the 1-yard touchdown.
Thanks to that score, Williams became just the third player in franchise history to rush for six touchdowns in the first five games, joining Emmitt Smith, who had nine in 1995 and seven in 1994, with Calvin Hill also earning six in 1971.
But while the Cowboys offense came out clicking, the defense once again sputtered, as Tampa Bay went on a lengthy, time-consuming drive, remarkably eating up the rest of the first quarter.
Daniels was three for three converting on third downs, but it was a penalty on DaRon Bland that truly hurt. Dallas had sacked the quarterback for a 12-yard loss on third-and-5, which also pushed the Buccaneers out of field goal range. Instead, because of a defensive holding flag on the cornerback, the visitor got a new set of downs.
Second Quarter
Facing a second-and-10 at the Dallas 10-yard line when the second frame got underway, Tampa was immediately handed 5 more yards thanks to a neutral zone infraction call on Rashan Gary, the third penalty on the defense during the series. With that, Daniels rolled to his right on the 15th play of the drive and connected with running back Bucky Irving, who stretched past the pylon to tie the game, 7-7.
After that initial offensive output, the defenses on both sides settled down, and a string of punts soon followed. But with 1:52 left in the half, the Cowboys started at their own 13-yard line, and on the first play of the possession, Prescott went deep to Ryan Flournoy for a big 48-yard completion to the Buccaneers' 39. That eventually resulted in a 41-yard Brandon Aubrey field goal and a 10-7 Dallas advantage at the break.
Third Quarter
In just two plays and one minute, Tampa Bay had its first lead of the game. On the opening offensive play of the quarter, Irving broke free off left tackle and raced 72 yards to the Dallas 14 before being pushed out of bounds. Wideout Emeka Egbuka then took a handoff around the left end and beat the defense across the goal line for the sudden score.
And things only went from bad to worse. Dallas crossed midfield again after Prescott found Pickens for a 27-yard completion to the Buccaneers' 34. But two snaps later, a pass to Flournoy over the middle tipped off the receiver's hands, bounced off a defender and was corralled by Tampa linebacker Yaya Diaby for the interception.
Given the gift, Daniels went deep himself when receiver Tez Johnson was wide open down the right seam after Bland fell down in coverage. That provided a 64-yard gain to the Dallas 15, with Irving then using three carries to pick up the final yardage to up the Cowboys' deficit to 11.
However, nothing could seemingly go right for Dallas, as on the ensuing kickoff KaVontae Turpin fumbled, the Buccaneers falling on the prize at the Cowboys' 37-yard line. While the Cowboys defense was able to prevent another touchdown, Tampa tacked on three more points with a 41-yard field goal, giving the visitors a 24-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Fourth Quarter
Unfortunately, the Buccaneers were back in enemy territory at the start of the final 15 minutes after the Cowboys failed to convert on a fourth-and-3 just before the third quarter came to an end, which set Tampa Bay up at the Dallas 42-yard line.
Again, the Cowboys prevented a touchdown, stopping the Buccaneers from crossing the goal line on fourth-and-1 at the 1-yard line, but Tampa ate up another 8:14 of precious time.
Of course, Prescott and company weren't done yet, although they had to work without Lamb. And now with a true sense of urgency, the Cowboys needed only 3:06 to travel 99 yards in 10 plays, the quarterback connecting on passes of 16, 15, 13, 20 and finally 17 yards to get to pay dirt. Pickens got the scoring honors, making a leaping grab in the end zone. Down by eight, head coach Brian Schottenheimer then elected to go for the two-point conversion, but Prescott's pass sailed over the head of Flournoy, incomplete.
With the Dallas defense getting a much-needed three-and-out, Prescott now had 3:42 remaining to get the game tied. And he had the offense rolling again, reaching the Tampa Bay 24-yard line. But his pass to Jake Ferguson over the middle went off the hands of the tight end and into the air, only to be hauled in by Buccaneers linebacker Alex Anzalone.
Once Irving burst off right tackle for 22 yards, it was game over. With that, the Cowboys' record fell to 2-3 with upcoming road games at Green Bay and Philadelphia.
