TAMPA - The winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, starting rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels in place of the injured Baker Mayfield, travel to Arlington, Texas, as 10-point underdogs Thursday night to face a Dallas Cowboys offense averaging 30.5 points per game, with kickoff set for 8:15 p.m. ET at AT&T Stadium on Prime Video.
Daniels made his NFL starting debut last Sunday in a 17-14 loss to the Green Bay Packers, directing two touchdown drives but throwing two interceptions. The Buccaneers ran for 141 yards against Green Bay, including 55 from Daniels, but the offense has yet to score more than 20 points in any game this season.
Head Coach Todd Bowles pointed to the team’s inability to close out tight games as the defining problem of the 0-4 start. “We [have to] find out [how] to close games, because all of them are one-score games, and we [have to] finish,” Bowles said after Sunday’s loss. “Everybody plays a part in that, and it starts with me.” The Buccaneers have now played a franchise-record 10 consecutive games decided by one score, falling on the wrong side eight times.
The Cowboys enter at 2-2, one game behind the New York Giants in the NFC East, after quarterback Dak Prescott threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb for his 17th catch of the day to seal a 34-30 win over Houston in Week Four. Lamb leads the NFL in receptions with 37, receiving yards with 498, and first-down receptions with 28. Despite high-profile defensive additions including edge rushers Rashan Gary and Von Miller, linebacker Dee Winters, rookie safety Caleb Downs and recently acquired cornerback Joey Porter Jr., Dallas is allowing 28.0 points per game and has recorded only four sacks through four games, with just one by an edge rusher.
Tampa Bay’s defense has been a relative bright spot, holding three straight opponents under 285 yards of total offense and ranking as a top-10 unit. The Buccaneers recorded their first multi-takeaway game of the season against Green Bay but were shut out without a sack, managing only six sacks total through four games. Second-year edge rusher David Walker leads the team with 2.0 sacks. First-round rookie Rueben Bain Jr., taken 15th overall, could return this week after missing two games with shoulder and groin injuries.
The Buccaneers’ most pressing problem on offense has been pass protection. Despite skill-position weapons including wide receivers Chris Godwin and Emeka Egbuka, running backs Bucky Irving and Kenny Gainwell, Tampa Bay has allowed the highest sacks-per-pass-play rate in the NFL. The Cowboys’ defensive front ranks sixth in the league in the same category.
Thursday’s game is the first of three scheduled prime-time contests for Tampa Bay in 2026. The Buccaneers have gone 1-9 in prime-time games over the past three years, though the franchise went 7-3 in prime time in the two seasons prior to that stretch.