Cowboys Winners & Losers In Thursday Night Meltdown vs. Bucs

The Dallas Cowboys suffered arguably their worst defeat in the Brian Schottenheimer era by falling 24-16 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

A game that, by some avenue of the imagination, still saw Dallas with a chance to tie late in the fourth quarter before Dak Prescott's second interception sealed the Bucs' first win of the year.

If any stat indicated just how dominant Tampa Bay was with backup quarterback Jalon Daniels, it was owning over 39 minutes of possession to just 20 minutes for the Cowboys.

A postgame moment also personified the feeling inside AT&T Stadium for the home team. Prescott was retreating to the locker room as a worker blurts out the word "embarrassing."

Prescott kept walking, but turned his eyes toward the person. When the quarterback looked away, the person blurted, "he heard me."

And so did the rest of Cowboys Nation, very few of them disagreeing.

Here are some winners and losers in particular from Thursday Night Football in Week 5.

Bland was picked apart for the second week in a row, but this time without shut-down cornerback Joey Porter Jr. on the opposite side of him. Porter was ruled out with what Jerry Jones called "flu-like" symptoms during pregame. Last week, the Texans targeted Bland's direction to move off of Porter's coverage.

That remained Tampa Bay's recipe. As a whole, the Cowboys' secondary struggled making routine tackles and committed several costly penalties (such as Bland's holding that wiped away a third-down sack and allowed Daniels to march for 10 minutes on the Bucs' first possession, a touchdown).

Bland was targeted on a route by speedster Tez Johnson, resulting in a 64-yard completion. On Tampa's final drive, Daniels went in Bland's direction again, but the former All-Pro pick-6 merchant got bug-eyed, quick-footed, and dropped what likely could have been an interception returned for a touchdown that gave Dallas a chance for a game-tying 2-point try.

Bland is playing in the first year of his four-year, $90 million contract. That's a lot of money that would sit on the bench if Porter and Cobie Durant (hamstring) return to the field in Dallas' next game 10 days from now (with rookie Caleb Downs staying in the nickel), but it wouldn't be much of a surprise.

One week after CeeDee Lamb had a career-best 17 receptions, Pickens had his season-high with nine for 130 yards and his first touchdown of the season.

Lamb would exit the fourth quarter against the Buccaneers with a quad injury. Ryan Flournoy also stepped up amidst a quiet night for the Cowboys' All-Pro, with three receptions for 90 yards.

But while Prescott totaled 316 yards passing, his 58 percent completion explained how Week 5 was his worst showing of the season. Dak entered the game with an elite 70 percent mark through four weeks, but was frequently off-target on Thursday as he adjusted to the Bucs' blitz.

Prescott addressed the "embarrassing" call-out in his postgame remarks, but chose not to use the word directly in an attempt to not discredit the Buccaneers. He also referenced how the spat came behind his back, but very clearly sent in his direction.

"Yeah. I mean, not that they’re wrong, But the thing was I just … Yeah, I don’t know if it was an employee, it was a driver, whoever it was, he’s free to speak his mind," Prescott said, accusuing the person of "cower(ing)'' when the QB spun around to find him.

"And so, if you're saying it's embarrassing, say it's embarrassing. If you're saying it to me, then say it to me. Don't go back on it. So that's all that was, and hate that it's even being talked about, to be honest with you."

It turns out, Dak demanded the offending person be removed from AT&T Stadium.

"Tough guy. Get his ass outta here,'' he told the team's security chief.

As our Mike Fisher writes, "Dak and his Cowboys can’t beat the awful Bucs. But they sure showed that mean ol’ ‘unmanly’ valet driver, eh?''

Prescott's two interceptions were his first giveaways since his lone pick in Week 1. Dallas turned the ball over three times to Tampa Bay, including a kickoff fumble by KaVontae Turpin.

Driving into Bucs territory in a one-possession game with under two minutes remaining, Prescott found Ferguson over the middle, but the pass split through the tight ends hands, ricocheted off his helmet, and ended in the hands of an opposing linebacker to cap Dallas' comeback attempt.

"Yeah, we know Ferguson has to catch the ball," Schottenheimer said. "He knows that. And we really had two balls that were bouncing through the air tonight, if you will, against the team who’s playing a lot of zone coverage and so there’s guys back there to catch it and no one’s going to be harder on Jake than himself."

This is a second week of Ferguson's sloppiness finding its way onto the wrong end of the postgame report. He coughed up a fumble in last week's narrow win over the Texans.

The Cowboys' supposed hot-shot young coordinator was out-dueled by a young non-hot-shot quarterback, who, like many quarterbacks before, used Dallas as the ultimate "get-right" game.

Jalon Daniels is an undrafted free agent who is playing in place of injured starter Baker Mayfield (thumb). Thursday night was Daniels' first-career road start, in primetime, and Parker's defense welcomed him with open arms.

Whether it was Daniels' first-down runs with his legs, his dinking and dunking through the Cowboys' secondary, or his deep shots that took advantage of poor coverage or baited a pass interference call, the youngster simply out-played Dallas' defense.

Things were the same against the run. Bucky Irving totaled a career-high 167 yards and the Bucs plowed for 241 yards in total.

NFL coaches are judged in part by how well they can prepare a team on just four days' rest. This game, on paper, couldn't have had a simpler agenda. Instead, the Cowboys' coordinator showed that he's far from mastering the trade, and that this group is not significantly improved despite the numerous personnel changes.

With a chance to rise in the division standings, the Cowboys' collapse tells the rest of the NFC East that they are not the serious contenders they cracked themselves up to be.

The New York Giants remain atop the quartet despite Jaxson Dart's season-ending injury. The Philadelphia Eagles are in London and look to get to 3-2 with a win over Jacksonville using a new offensive line. And the Washington Commanders, despite being outscored by 34 points so far this year, are just one game back of Dallas and expected to return starting quarterback Jayden Daniels.

Those teams aren't alone, with Dallas joining in the collective dysfunction in Week 5.