The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have saved their season with their impressive 24-16 road upset of the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football.

Tampa played like the season was on the line, and the Bucs finally earned their first victory after dropping four straight to begin the new campaign. The Bucs were massive 9.5-point underdogs against the Cowboys but put together their best showing of the season to get the desperately needed win.

The offense, defense, and special teams all made big plays in big moments to pull out the victory.

There were several standout performances from the Bucs on Thursday. 

Unfortunately, there were also a few disappointing ones that made it even more difficult for Tampa to earn the upset.

Let's check out my five winners and four losers from Thursday night.

1. RB Bucky Irving: Who else would be the top winner? Irving was the brightest star of the night, rushing for a career-high 165 yards and a touchdown, including this beautiful 72-yard gallop to start the second half. 

Irving also caught a TD on Tampa’s opening drive to tie the score at seven. It was the first game of his young career with both a rushing and a receiving score. 

The third-year back is once again the explosive, dynamic back he was as a rookie. From this point forward, Irving should be the centerpiece of the offense. 

2. QB Jalon Daniels: Daniels was outstanding in only his second NFL start. The undrafted rookie played with poise and ended the game 19-for-25 for 189 yards and a TD. He also ran five times for 25 yards before two victory formation kneel-downs. 

Most importantly, Daniels didn’t turn the ball over after throwing two INTs in his first start last week. There were a couple of things that need to be cleaned up, like holding onto the ball too long and an almost game-changing pick-six that was dropped. 

Otherwise, it was a great outing from the rookie.

3. WR Emeka Egbuka: The Bucs needed Egbuka to start stepping up and being the WR1 the team drafted him in the first round to be.

Against the Cowboys, Egbuka was huge. He made big plays at big moments, converted multiple third downs, including a third-and-21, and his 14-yard jet sweep TD gave Tampa a 14-10 lead that it would never give up. 

4. LB Alex Anzalone: Anzalone had been abused in coverage all season, but his interception of Dak Prescott with 1:16 left sealed the game. 

Tight end Jake Ferguson couldn’t catch a perfectly thrown ball, and Anzalone was there to grab the deflection. 

It wasn’t a perfect game, but making the play to complete the victory must have felt great for Anzalone. 

5. Tampa’s CBs: Against the Cowboys’ lethal passing game, Tampa’s cornerbacks really stepped up, especially without star safety Antoine Winfield Jr. playing behind them. 

Zyon McCollum shut down star receiver CeeDee Lamb in their one-on-one matchups and had two pass breakups. Lamb only had two catches for nine yards before having to be a decoy after suffering a quad injury. 

Jacob Parrish led the Bucs with nine total tackles and had an impressive four PBUs. Parrish gave up some receptions and yards while Tampa was protecting a lead late, but Thursday was overall a strong performance. 

1. HC Todd Bowles: Bowles had a rough game Thursday night. He decided to kick a 61-yard field goal in the second quarter, but took too long to make up his mind. Chase McLaughlin drilled the kick, but the Bucs didn’t get the snap off in time. The delay-of-game penalty took the three points off the board and forced Tampa to punt. 

Even worse, Bowles made the terrible decision to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line about midway through the fourth quarter, up 24-10. A field goal would have put the Bucs up by three scores and likely iced the game, but Bowles decided to go for it anyway. 

RB Sean Tucker was stopped short, and it only took 3:06 for Dallas to drive 99 yards to pull within one score. 

2. The Offensive Line: The line only gave up one sack and opened up holes for the run game. However, the line shot the offense in the foot with numerous penalties that consistently had the Bucs moving backwards.  

Right tackle Luke Goedeke was flagged once each for a hold and a false start, as was guard Ben Bredeson, who has been particularly bad this season. 

The line was supposed to be the team’s biggest strength. Over five games, it has been the team’s biggest disappointment. 

3. Rueben Bain Jr.: The first-round pick returned after a two-game absence, but still failed to make an impact. 

Against the Cowboys, Bain only had two tackles and, once again, was unable to generate any pressure on Prescott. He was also guilty of a neutral zone infraction. 

There’s a good chance Bain is still playing at less than 100%, but each passing game without him making an impact is cause for concern. 

4. WR Ted Hurst: Hurst had started to carve out a role over Tampa’s first four games. With Jalen McMillan out for 6-8 weeks, Hurst was expected to see his role steadily increase. 

However, against Dallas, Hurst was kept off the stat sheet. He did throw a nice block on Egbuka’s TD, but not seeing any targets in the passing game was a big step back for the rookie.