The Dallas Cowboys are sitting at 2-3 after a baffling 24-16 home loss to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers on “Thursday Night Football,” kicking off Week 5. Cowboy fans at AT&T Stadium let their team hear it loud and clear as they trudged off the field, a chorus of boos raining down on them. And honestly, they probably earned every single boo.
This Loss? Yeah, It Was That Bad
Think about this: Tampa Bay rolled into Arlington with undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels making only his second career start. His predecessor, Baker Mayfield, was out injured. By the time the clock hit zero, Daniels was walking off the field having orchestrated the third-largest upset win by an undrafted rookie quarterback since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger. The Bucs were 9.5-point underdogs. Daniels was efficient, going 19 for 25 passing for 189 yards and a touchdown, plus adding 23 rushing yards on 7 carries. But the real gut punch? Allowing Buccaneers running back Bucky Irvin to just go off. Irvin exploded for a career-high 165 yards rushing and a touchdown on 21 carries, averaging a ridiculous 7.9 yards per carry. Get this: he had been averaging only 59.2 rushing yards per game across the last two seasons before Thursday. Yeah, the loss was so bad that someone even yelled “embarrassing” at Dak Prescott as he walked alone to the locker room. Prescott himself admitted, “It’s a loss we’re supposed to have, definitely supposed to have. To use the word embarrassing , it’s tough… when a winless team comes into your home stadium on a Thursday night primetime game, yeah, we’re supposed to win that.”
Jerry Jones Is 84 And Still Chasing That Ring
So, was this disheartening loss enough to make Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones hit the brakes on his “win-now” trade philosophy? He already sent a 2027 sixth-round pick and a 2028 second-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for 26-year-old cornerback Joey Porter Jr., who missed his home debut due to “flu-like” symptoms. Jones’ answer to whether he’s pumping the brakes is pretty simple: Nope, he’s still open for business. The man turns 84 years old on October 13, and he’s not wasting any time trying to snag a fourth Super Bowl. “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,” Jones stated postgame. He added, “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. This isn’t fold the tents here. We are 2-3, didn’t ex”. The message is clear: despite the 2-3 record in what’s described as a wide-open NFC East, Jones isn’t about to give up on this season, especially with draft capital still in hand.
What happens next for the 2-3 Cowboys, with their owner still aggressive in the trade market after such a brutal loss? They’ve got a lot to figure out fast.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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