The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally showed the rest of the NFL what they are capable of in their Week 5 road upset over the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football.

What a difference a week can make in the NFL. 

Before they triumphed over the Cowboys, the Bucs looked like one of the worst teams in the NFL. They were 0-4 and languishing in last place in the weak NFC South division, which they were overwhelming favorites to win this season. 

Franchise quarterback Baker Mayfield was injured, forcing Tampa to turn to undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels with its season hanging by a thread. 

First-round pick Rueben Bain Jr., after a phenomenal offseason made him the most anticipated Bucs rookie in a long time, was completely invisible in Tampa’s first two games before missing the next two with shoulder and groin injuries. 

The Bucs had one of the NFL’s least effective pass rushes, a minus-5 turnover differential in the first four games, and their offensive line, expected to be among the best in the league, looked closer to the worst in the league. 

Tampa looked hopeless, had lost 11 of its last 13 games, and was probably one more loss away from having the season over by mid-October. Todd Bowles’ chances of making it through the season were shrinking by the day. 

Then Daniels led the team to a huge upset over Dallas that nobody saw coming. Aided by a career night from running back Bucky Irving, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka’s best game of the season, and an opportunistic defense that picked off Dak Prescott twice and held the Cowboys to a season-low 16 points, the Bucs finally looked like the good team many expected them to be. 

There was hope again in Tampa. 

Of course, there is still plenty of work to do before the Bucs can even begin to think about winning the division and returning to the playoffs. But even at 1-4, they only find themselves 1.5 games behind the 2-2 Carolina Panthers for the top spot in the South. 

The win also earned Tampa a modest jump in ESPN’s weekly NFL power rankings. After finding themselves all the way down to 30th in last week’s rankings, the Bucs have climbed up to 27th this week. 

They are still ranked as one of the NFL’s bottom-feeders, but stacking wins over the next few weeks will have the Bucs back in the thick of the divisional race. 

This week’s rankings from ESPN highlighted one defensive issue for each NFL team. 

For the Bucs, Jenna Laine needed only one word to describe the biggest flaw of Tampa’s defense. 

Inconsistency. 

Laine used linebacker Alex Anzalone as the perfect example of the defense's issue with consistency.

"Biggest issue on defense: Inconsistency

"You don't know who or what you're going to get with the Bucs right now. Take inside linebacker Alex Anzalone, who struggled mightily early in the season but was a standout Thursday night with his game-sealing interception. There was a reason he was tested so many times by Dak Prescott over the middle. When the offense doesn't turn the ball over, and the defense can get some takeaways of its own, the Bucs can make enough plays to win games. The key is doing it on a play-by-play and week-to-week basis. -- Jenna Laine"

Personally, I would have gone with the complete lack of a pass rush as Tampa's biggest issue on defense.

Bain's inability to make any impact at all over his three games played has played a major role in the Bucs only having a total of six sacks through five games, as has Bowles' confusing decision to barely play David Walker, who has been the team's best pass rusher by a mile so far.

Overall, the Bucs' defense has been very strong this season, ranking near the top in several categories. I disagree with Laine's take that it has been inconsistent. Aside from the pass rush, I believe the defense has been consistently good this season.

As for the Bucs being 27th in the power rankings, I thought they would be a couple of spots higher, but as long as they steadily move up as the season progresses, they will be right there for the NFC South title at season's end.