{"id":460465,"date":"2026-10-08T20:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T20:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/460465\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T20:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T20:48:08","slug":"bucs-vs-cowboys-tnf-game-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/460465\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucs vs. Cowboys TNF Game Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>INJURY REPORT<\/p>\n<p>DNP: Did not participate in practice<\/p>\n<p>LP: Limited participation in practice<\/p>\n<p>FP: Full participation in practice<\/p>\n<p>OLB Rueben Bain Jr. (groin\/shoulder) \u2013 MON: FP; TUES: FP; WEDS: FP. Game Status: Not listed.LB SirVocea Dennis (calf) \u2013 MON: DNP; TUES: DNP; WEDS: DNP. Game Status: Out.TE Ko Kieft (elbow) \u2013 MON: LP; TUES: LP; WEDS: FP. Game Status: Not listed.QB Baker Mayfield (right thumb) \u2013 MON: DNP; TUES: DNP; WEDS: DNP. Game Status: Out.K Chase McLaughlin (right groin\/hip) \u2013 MON: NL; TUES: DNP; WEDS: FP. Game Status: Not listed.CB Benjamin Morrison (quad) \u2013 MON: DNP; TUES: DNP; WEDS: DNP. Game Status: Out.OLB Anthony Nelson (illness) \u2013 MON: NL; TUES: LP; WEDS: LP. Game Status: Not listed.LB Josiah Trotter (knee) \u2013 MON: LP; TUES: FP; WEDS: FP. Game Status: Not listed.S Antoine Winfield Jr. (rib) \u2013 MON: DNP; TUES: DNP; WEDS: DNP. Game Status: Out.<\/p>\n<p>(* The Buccaneers conducted walk-throughs on Monday and Tuesday and practice participation notes are estimations.)<\/p>\n<p>S Alijah Clark (ankle) \u2013 MON: FP; TUES: FP; WEDS: FP. Game Status: Not listed.CB Cobie Durant (hamstring) \u2013 MON: DNP; TUES: DNP; WEDS: DNP. Game Status: Out.RB Tyler Goodson (ankle) \u2013 MON: FP; TUES: FP; WEDS: FP. Game Status: Not listed.S Malik Hooker (forearm) \u2013 MON: FP; TUES: FP; WEDS: FP. Game Status: Not listed.OLB James Houston (shoulder) \u2013 MON: FP; TUES: FP; WEDS: FP. Game Status: Not listed.WR CeeDee Lamb (thigh) \u2013 MON: FP; TUES: FP; WEDS: FP. Game Status: Not listed.WR Jonathan Mingo (illness) \u2013 MON: NL; TUES: NL; WEDS: DNP. Game Status: Questionable.LB DeMarvion Overshown (hamstring) \u2013 MON: DNP; TUES: DNP; WEDS: DNP. Game Status: Out.CB Joey Porter Jr. (ankle) \u2013 MON: FP; TUES: FP; WEDS: FP. Game Status: Not listed.T Drew Shelton (hamstring) \u2013 MON: DNP; TUES: DNP; WEDS: DNP. Game Status: Out.G Tyler Smith^ (thumb) \u2013 MON: LP; TUES: LP; WEDS: FP. Game Status: Questionable.<\/p>\n<p>(* The Buccaneers conducted a walk-through on Monday and practice participation notes are estimations. ^ Tyler Smith is on injured reserve but has been designated for return and is within his 21-day practice window.)<\/p>\n<p>BUCCANEERS&#8217; UNIFORM COMBINATION<\/p>\n<p>The Buccaneers will wear red jerseys and white pants in Dallas in Week Five.<\/p>\n<p>WEATHER FORECAST<\/p>\n<p>Stadium with retractable roof that is commonly closed. Outside weather: Partly cloudy. High of 86 (feels like 91), low of 65, 6% chance of rain, winds out of the NNE at 4 mph.<\/p>\n<p>GAME REFEREE<\/p>\n<p>Head referee: Alex Moore (fifth season, second as referee)<\/p>\n<p>BETTING LINE<\/p>\n<p>Favorite: Cowboys (-14.0)Over\/Under: 47.5<\/p>\n<p>INDIVIDUAL STAT LEADERS<\/p>\n<p>Points Scored: K Chase McLauglin, 34<\/p>\n<p>Touchdowns: WR Emeka Egbuka\/RB Kenny Gainwell\/WR Ted Hurst\/RB Bucky Irving\/QB Baker Mayfield\/LB Josiah Trotter\/RB Sean Tucker, 1<\/p>\n<p>Passing Yards: QB Baker Mayfield, 615<\/p>\n<p>Passer Rating: QB Baker Mayfield, 80.0<\/p>\n<p>Rushing Yards: RB Bucky Irving, 241<\/p>\n<p>Receptions: WR Emeka Chris Godwin, 16<\/p>\n<p>Receiving Yards: TE Cade Otton, 157<\/p>\n<p>Interceptions: CB Jacob Parrish\/DL A&#8217;Shawn Robinson\/LB Josiah Trotter, 1<\/p>\n<p>Sacks: OLB David Walker, 2.0<\/p>\n<p>Tackles: LB Josiah Trotter, 30<\/p>\n<p>Points Scored: K Brandon Aubrey, 36<\/p>\n<p>Touchdowns: RB Javonte Williams, 6<\/p>\n<p>Passing Yards: QB Dak Prescott, 1,065<\/p>\n<p>Passer Rating: QB Dak Prescott, 105.0<\/p>\n<p>Rushing Yards: RB Javonte Williams, 231<\/p>\n<p>Receptions: WR CeeDee Lamb, 37<\/p>\n<p>Receiving Yards: WR CeeDee Lamb, 498<\/p>\n<p>Sacks: DB Caleb Downs\/Rashan Gary 1.0\/Quinnen Williams, 1.0<\/p>\n<p>Tackles: LB Jaishawn Barham\/LB Dee Winters, 25<\/p>\n<p>TEAM STAT RANKINGS<\/p>\n<p>Scoring Offense: 24th (19.0 ppg)<\/p>\n<p>Total Offense: 28th (278.3 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>Rushing Offense: 17th (106.0 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>Passing Offense: t-28th (172.3 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>First Downs Per Game: 28th (16.5)<\/p>\n<p>Third-Down Pct.: 24th (34.6%)<\/p>\n<p>Sacks Per Pass Attempt Allowed: 32nd (12.70%)<\/p>\n<p>Red Zone TD Pct.: 31st (41.7%)<\/p>\n<p>Scoring Defense: 20th (24.0 ppg)<\/p>\n<p>Total Defense: 4th (282.8 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>Rushing Defense: 3rd (78.5 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>Passing Defense: 9th (204.3 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>First Downs Allowed Per Game: 3rd (16.3)<\/p>\n<p>Third-Down Pct. Allowed: 6th (32.7%)<\/p>\n<p>Sacks Per Pass Attempt: 25th (4.84%)<\/p>\n<p>Red Zone TD Pct. Allowed: t-5th (45.5%)<\/p>\n<p>Turnover Margin: t-27th (-5)<\/p>\n<p>Scoring Offense: 2nd (30.5 ppg)<\/p>\n<p>Total Offense: 12th (347.5 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>Rushing Offense: 25th (89.5 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>Passing Offense: 7th (258.0 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>First Downs Per Game: 4th (24.0)<\/p>\n<p>Third-Down Pct.: 4th (51.0%)<\/p>\n<p>Sacks Per Pass Attempt Allowed: 6th (4.00%)<\/p>\n<p>Red Zone TD Pct.: 3rd (81.3)<\/p>\n<p>Scoring Defense: 29th (28.0 ppg)<\/p>\n<p>Total Defense: 30th (389.5 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>Rushing Defense: 31st (150.3 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>Passing Defense: 24th (239.3 ypg)<\/p>\n<p>First Downs Allowed Per Game: 29th (23.0)<\/p>\n<p>Third-Down Pct. Allowed: 31st (52.3%)<\/p>\n<p>Sacks Per Pass Attempt: 29th (3.48%)<\/p>\n<p>Red Zone TD Pct. Allowed: 27th (73.3%)<\/p>\n<p>Turnover Margin: t-17th (0)<\/p>\n<p>WHAT TO WATCH FOR<\/p>\n<p>A Tampa Bay victory on Sunday would be notable for General Manager Jason Licht in that it would be the team&#8217;s 100th victory, including playoffs, since he stepped into his current post in 2014. He would become the first general manager in franchise history to reach 100 wins.Kicker Chase McLaughlin has scored 34 points through the first four weeks of the season. Those points have already moved him up two spots on the Buccaneers&#8217; all-time scoring list at 425, and if he gets seven more he will also leapfrog Mike Alstott (432) and move into the top five in team history.McLaughlin has also made 46 field goals of 50 yards or longer in his career, tied for the 10th most in NFL history. With his next one, he will break that tie with Graham Gano and move and take over sole possession of the spot.Linebacker Josiah Trotter has a team-leading 30 tackles in his three games played so far (he missed Week Three against Minnesota due to a shoulder injury). If he gets seven more stops against the Cowboys he would set a new Bucs record for the most tackles by a player in his first four games, surpassing Kendell Beckwith (36) in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>NOTABLY QUOTABLE<\/p>\n<p>Head Coach Todd Bowles on if more game-planning can be done to get wide receivers Emeka Egbuka and Chris Godwin Jr. more involved in the offense: &#8220;Again, we go into the game just like that. Whether it&#8217;s [a] penalty or whether they&#8217;re doubling the guys or whether it&#8217;s a setback in the play and we can&#8217;t get them what we want to get them to\u2026But, we&#8217;ve got to do a better job getting them the ball.&#8221;Defensive lineman A&#8217;Shawn Robinson on how the team stays focused despite being 0-4: &#8220;The season isn&#8217;t over. You can&#8217;t lose and be [out of] the playoffs in four games, so that&#8217;s already something that you don&#8217;t have to dwell on. So, we&#8217;re just focused on what we need to do now.&#8221;Offensive Coordinator Zac Robinson on RB Sean Tucker&#8217;s performance against Green Bay and if he plans to get Tucker more involved moving forward: &#8220;Yeah, I think similar to what we mentioned last week, [it depends on] some of the flows of the game, but that is our responsibility. We&#8217;ve got to get Tuck going some more for sure. [He] did a great job on that short-yardage run, carrying the pile for a gain of eight. That was outstanding. Then the [offensive] line blocked it up very well on the next snap in order to punch that thing in. So yeah, [we&#8217;ve] got to get Tuck going as much as we can.&#8221;Quarterback Jalon Daniels on the pressures on him during the final drive of Sunday&#8217;s game against the Green Bay Packers: &#8220;There&#8217;s an opportunity for me to be able to flip the protection and be able to slide it that way, knowing that they brought that same exact look. I think that being able to see, like I said, see that live and being able to go through that, you obviously hear it a lot, you see Baker [Mayfield] go through it, but until you&#8217;re actually the one getting those live reps, it&#8217;s a lot easier said than done until you&#8217;re actually out there doing it. The fact that I was able to see that and be able to get that learning opportunity for me, I treat that as a lesson.&#8221;Pass Game Coordinator George Edwards on CB Jacob Parrish&#8217;s interception against the Green Bay Packers: &#8220;No doubt about it. Great recognition on his part and then to be able to catch it and then to try to return it. I mean, those are the things we&#8217;ve been emphasizing at practice, and you can see it show up in the game. That&#8217;s why collectively as a group, they&#8217;ve really put a lot of pressure on themselves to make that a point of emphasis, whether it&#8217;s knocking the ball out, creating a fumble. We&#8217;ve had some balls knocked out and not recovered them from that aspect of it. Those are the attention to detail things that that&#8217;s why you like working with this group.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INJURY REPORT DNP: Did not participate in practice LP: Limited participation in practice FP: Full participation in practice&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,1492,9722,156419],"class_list":["post-460465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-featured","tag-game-preview","tag-week-5-2026-cowboys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}