{"id":460813,"date":"2026-10-09T04:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T04:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/460813\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T04:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T04:18:08","slug":"bucky-irving-and-rookie-qb-jalon-daniels-help-bucs-beat-sloppy-cowboys-24-16-for-1st-win-of-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/460813\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucky Irving and rookie QB Jalon Daniels help Bucs beat sloppy Cowboys 24-16 for 1st win of season"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas \u2013 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

___<\/p>\n

\nSee AP\u2019s full NFL coverage here<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas \u2013 Bucky Irving ran for a career-high 165 yards, including a 72-yard run to set up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[34046,150,152,151,13271,7581,157570,114,48421,5962,13431,154703,8634,154,157569],"class_list":["post-460813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-alijah-clark","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-baker-mayfield","tag-brian-schottenheimer","tag-bucky-irving","tag-dak-prescott","tag-emeka-egbuka","tag-george-pickens","tag-jalon-daniels","tag-joey-porter-jr","tag-kavontae-turpin","tag-sports","tag-tez-johnson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460813","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=460813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}