{"id":424999,"date":"2026-10-11T18:04:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T18:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/424999\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T18:04:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T18:04:57","slug":"bucs-beat-sloppy-cowboys-24-16-for-1st-win-of-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/424999\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucs beat sloppy Cowboys 24-16 for 1st win of season"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Bucky Irving ran for a career-high 165 yards, including a 72-yard run<\/a> to set up the touchdown that put Tampa Bay ahead for good while scoring twice himself, and the Buccaneers beat the Dallas Cowboys 24-16 on Thursday night for their first win of the season.<\/p>\n

Jalon Daniels threw a TD pass to Irving in the first half while directing a turnover-free offense amid several Dallas miscues in the just the second start for the undrafted rookie.<\/p>\n

Daniels, who was 19 of 25 for 189 yards, is filling in for Baker Mayfield, who’s expected to be sidelined at least one more game with a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand.<\/p>\n

Irving had 21 carries and a 7.9-yard average while scoring on a 5-yard pass and a 1-yard plunge as the Bucs (1-4) finally found some footing in a season that started with expectations of winning the NFC South.<\/p>\n

Dak Prescott led a 99-yard drive and threw a 13-yard TD pass to George Pickens in the fourth quarter before his second interception off a tipped pass helped Tampa Bay clinch the win in the final two minutes.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys (2-3) continued an up-and-down start to the season, this time with an offense that was as times as sloppy as the defense has been in both seasons under coach Brian Schottenheimer.<\/p>\n

After Irving’s long run on the first play of the second half was followed by receiver Emeka Egbuka’s 14-yard TD run on a jet sweep, Prescott threw his first interception and the Dallas defense left Tez Johnson wide open on a 64-yard grab that led to Irving’s 1-yard plunge for a 21-10 lead.<\/p>\n

KaVontae Turpin’s fumble on the subsequent kickoff led to a Tampa Bay field goal, but only after the Bucs converted a third-and-21 from the Dallas 48-yard line with Daniels’ 21-yard pass to Egbuka.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys were missing one of the pieces they recently added to try to fix a porous defense. Cornerback Joey Porter Jr. was a late scratch in what was supposed to be his second appearance since arriving in a trade from Pittsburgh last week.<\/p>\n

Prescott was 24 of 42 for 316 yards in his first two-interception game of the season \u2014 his first picks since the opener.<\/p>\n

Bucs have long and short TD drives<\/p>\n

Irving’s 5-yard TD catch capped a 15-play, 73-yard drive that ran the final 10:44 off the clock in the first quarter and had a final count of 10:58. Then his 72-yard run was the first of two plays on an 86-yard drive that took exactly 1 minute.<\/p>\n

Injuries<\/p>\n

Cowboys DB Alijah Clark exited with a hamstring injury in the first half and didn’t return.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Buccaneers: Home against Pittsburgh on Oct. 18.<\/p>\n

Cowboys: At Green Bay on Oct. 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Bucky Irving ran for a career-high 165 yards, including a 72-yard run to set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2205,28,115,4548,110,135,4547,137,136],"class_list":["post-424999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-associated-press","tag-florida","tag-news","tag-professional-football","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-bucs","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}