ARLINGTON, Texas – After getting back to .500 with a win in Houston, the Cowboys fell to 2-3 on Thursday night with a 24-16 loss at AT&T Stadium to the once winless Buccaneers.

Dallas' defense, which went up against rookie UDFA QB Jalon Daniels in his second career start, allowed Tampa Bay to post 419 total yards of offense, 241 of which came on the ground. The Cowboys' lack of success stopping the run came as a big surprise to owner/GM Jerry Jones.

"Extraordinarily, extraordinarily disappointed," Jones said of the loss. "You really do need to get it done when it's there to take. They basically were very physical. I thought both their fronts, was really surprised at how well they ran the ball, how they ran it between the tackles. That was surprising. We thought if they were going to run it, they'd do it outside, and thought we'd put it on the quarterback shoulders. Their staff, their quarterback, all their players got a great victory here tonight, and it was a tough loss for us."

Daniels found success through the air as well, completing 19 of his 25 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown in his first NFL win. The Cowboys felt they had a great opportunity in front of them tonight with a young QB for Tampa Bay and a defense that was missing some crucial pieces, but ultimately couldn't get the job done.

"Boy, I've been so disappointed before with losses, but this was disappointing," Jones said. "And I'm disappointed because I see potential growth here. And we need to have good experiences on an individual basis as well as a team. And this was not a good experience out here."

Cowboys defensive coordinator Christian Parker and his unit have struggled to find consistency through the first five games of the season. Going into Thursday night, Dallas was allowing 389.5 yards of offense per game, the third-most in the NFL, and 28 points per game, the fifth-most in the league. Tampa Bay's 24 points was the most they've posted all season.

Jones was asked if he still believes Parker can get the defense turned around, and he says he does.

"I do. Yes I do. He's sitting there taking it with taking it on the shoulders, which is the goes with the territory," Jones said. "But I feel that he's competent, and the things that he's trying to do."

"I'm gonna say it one more time, the thing that probably bothers me the most tonight is how they ran between the tackles so to speak and we're able to have that running game up in there with where we have a lot of strength. So that's something that we've got to really look at and will."

Just over a week ago, the Cowboys traded a 2027 sixth-round pick and a 2028 second-round pick for CB Joey Porter Jr., who was ruled out on Thursday night with an illness upon arriving to the stadium. Jones has spoken all offseason and into the regular season about his willingness to make trades to improve his team.

Even with the trade for Porter, it sounds like Jones and the Cowboys are still open for business.

"Yes, because the future capital, but I wouldn't give it up for a player that didn't have some future, or the potential of future that you could add years to…" Jones said when asked if he'd give up future capital for a player given how the team has performed. The future capital that you have are draft picks. And those guys have question marks with them too."

"So if we do see an opportunity and it fits for us, then we'll take a good look at it. No, I'm not, this isn't fold the tents here. We are two and three, we didn't expect to be two and three. We didn't expect this Tampa team to come in here [0-4] either. They've got a lot of good players. They, one unquestionably, they were the better team tonight."

The Cowboys will now have 10 days to reflect on the loss, get a bit healthier and weigh potential options across the board from a personnel standpoint moving forward. Dallas has now completed a stretch of three games in 11 days, the first of which was played in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Cowboys return to the field on Sunday, October 18 on the road against the Green Bay Packers.