The Tampa Bay Buccaneers walked into AT&T Stadium as 8.5-point underdogs, still carrying an 0-4 record and turning to undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels with Baker Mayfield sidelined by a thumb injury. They walked out with one of the night’s biggest surprises, a 24-16 win over the Dallas Cowboys.
Afterward, defensive tackle Vita Vea said the turnaround started with the players themselves. Speaking on the Amazon Prime Video postgame show, he described the week as a reset born inside the locker room.
"I think it was more so us players," Vea said about meetings that occurred during the week, per the JoeBucsFan website. "I think we got together as a unit and talked amongst ourselves.
It was one of those come-to-Jesus moments. 'We’re not really 0-4.
We’re not playing like we are 0-4.' We were shutting it down on defense.
Offense was doing their thing. We were just not finishing at the end of the game.
It was one of those things we harped on throughout the whole week."
That message showed up on the field. Tampa Bay’s defense limited a Cowboys offense that had been averaging 30.5 points over the season’s first four weeks to only two touchdown drives, with one coming on the scripted opening series. The Buccaneers also put together 419 total yards and ran for 241 yards in the win.
Daniels did his part in relief of Mayfield, completing 19 of 25 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown.
Vea said the short week didn’t change the urgency inside the building.
"I know we had a short week," Vea continued. "It was one of those things that we got together as a whole unit.
We knew we had to figure it out. The defense sure did.
They got a chokehold on maybe the best offense in the NFL, and even though Dallas finally got that offense into gear late, it wasn’t enough because the defense made just enough plays to put the game away."
Vea has been one of the Buccaneers players to publicly support head coach Todd Bowles, so the win also quieted the chatter about a possible firing as soon as Friday. That talk was already gone before the final whistle.
Tampa Bay, now 1-4, returns home to face the Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 18. Pittsburgh, also 2-2, hosts the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday at Acrisure Stadium.
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After the Buccaneers handled Dallas, the conversation around the game quickly shifted from the scoreboard to the tunnel. Dak Prescott was heckled as he walked off after the loss, with the man shouting that the performance was embarrassing, and Prescott stopped to confront him in the moment. The scene added another layer to a lopsided night and drew plenty of attention because it came as the Cowboys quarterback was already dealing with the weight of a frustrating result.
The debate only grew once a TikTok clip began circulating around the confrontation, feeding speculation about what happened next. Prescott acknowledged the criticism, while a local report identified the heckler as a car service driver rather than a stadium employee, complicating some of the early assumptions about who was involved. For Tampa Bay, it was the sort of postgame flashpoint that kept the win in the headlines for reasons far beyond the Bucs own performance. [Read more 🡒]
Baker Mayfield Is Still Driving The Bucs Through This QB Crisis
Baker Mayfield may be sidelined, but he has not disappeared from the Buccaneers quarterback room. With Mayfield out because of injury, Tampa Bay has handed the offense to Jalon Daniels, and the rookie has leaned on the veterans steady hand as he settles into a much bigger role than anyone expected this early in the season.
Daniels has said Mayfield has helped him get ready for games in ways that go beyond a quick tip or two, with support in practice, in film study and on the sideline. That kind of presence matters even more for a young quarterback who was thrust into the starting job, and it was part of the backdrop before Tampa Bay picked up its first win of the season in Dallas. [Read more 🡒]
Bucs Rookie Gives Fans One More Reason To Love Beating Dallas
The Buccaneers Thursday night win over Dallas gave Tampa Bay another satisfying layer to enjoy after the final whistle, and rookie linebacker Josiah Trotter made sure fans noticed. Trotter, whose football bloodlines run deep as the son of former Pro Bowl linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Sr. and the brother of Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr., shared his own postgame moment from the victory, leaning into the kind of swagger that follows a surprise win over a marquee opponent.
On social media, Trotter posted photos and a video from the game, including a tackle of Cowboys running back Javonte Williams, and capped it with a pointed nod at Dallas. It was the sort of rookie flex that lands well in the aftermath of a big home crowd win, especially when the opponent is the Cowboys, and it added one more talking point to a night Tampa Bay had already turned firmly in its favor. [Read more 🡒]