ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys (2-3) couldn't have done much more to embarrass themselves than what they did in their 24-16 head-scratcher of a loss against the previously-winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-4) on "Thursday Night Football" to kick off Week 5. The Cowboys trudged off their home field at AT&T Stadium on Thursday while being serenaded by a chorus of boos, and they earned every bit of it. Tampa Bay entered the game with undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels making his second career start in place of an injured Baker Mayfield, and when the clock hit zero, he was walking off the field with the third-largest upset win, as a 9.5-point underdog, by an undrafted rookie quarterback since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger, per CBS Sports Research.
Daniels was an efficient 19 for 25 passing with 189 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 23 yards on 7 carries. Even more damning was allowing Buccaneers running back Bucky Irvin to explode for a career-high 165 yards rushing and a touchdown on 21 carries for a 7.9 yards per carry average. Entering Thursday, he had averaged just 59.2 rushing yards per game across the last two seasons.
Dallas' loss was so disheartening that someone yelled "embarrassing" at Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott as he walked through the bowels of the stadium to the locker room by himself after the game. "It's a loss we're supposed to have, definitely supposed to have. To use the word embarrassing — it's tough," Prescott said.
"I feel like I'm discrediting the NFL if I use that [the word embarrassing] and particularly the Tampa Bay Bucs, the great Todd Bowles. … [But] when a winless team comes into your home stadium on a Thursday night primetime game, yeah, we're supposed to win that." Was the loss embarrassing enough to dissuade Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones from no longer pursuing additional win-now trades? He already traded a 2027 sixth-round pick and a 2028 second-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for 26-year-old cornerback Joey Porter Jr. Porter Jr. didn't make his home debut Thursday night because of "flu-like" symptoms.
Jones' answer to that question is simple: Nope, I'm still open for business. The man is set to turn 84 years old on Oct. 13, so he's open to doing what he can to win a fourth Super Bowl right now. "The future capital, I wouldn't give it up for a player who didn't have some future or the potential of future that you could add years to.
The future capital that you have are draft picks. Those guys have question marks with them too. So if we do see an opportunity, and it fits for us, we'll take a good look at it," Jones said postgame.
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