The fifth weekend of the season started with a stunning upset Thursday night when the winless Buccaneers, playing with undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels, shocked the Cowboys in Arlington, 24-16, to leave the league with just four winless teams and raised questions about whether the Cowboys are contenders or pretenders.
They still are given about a 60 percent chance of winning their division despite their 2-3 record, but Cowboys were either overconfident or not prepared to play. Their defense was shredded for 241 yards rushing and are now allowing 168.8 yards rushing per game. If they don’t improve, this will be their worst rushing defense since the team’s 1960 expansion season.
They gave up numerous big plays, including a 72-yard run by Bucky Irving on the first play of the second half when he danced behind the line of scrimmage and found a hole and exploded for the long run that set up a touchdown.
On the next drive, the Cowboys left Emeka Egbuka free in the secondary and Daniels, playing for injured Baker Mayfield, hit him for a 64-yard pass to set up another score. Daniels also threw a 21-yard pass on third-and-21 for a first down.
The Cowboys also made a lot of mistakes, including two Dak Prescott tipped passes that were intercepted, and a fumble on a kickoff return. Owner Jerry Jones said he was, “extraordinarily, extraordinarily disappointed.” So were all the fans who picked the Cowboys in their elimination pools.
–The weekend action resumes Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on the East Coast when the Jaguars play the Eagles in London. The Jaguars are 3-1, have won 11 of their last 12 regular season games and are favored. The Eagles have been shredded with injuries and will be without their top two running backs, Saquon Barkley and Tank Bigsby. They figure to have trouble running against the league’s best rush defense. And while the Jaguars can be vulnerable to the pass, Jalen Hurts has yet to get the passing game rolling.
–The Sunday night game features 3-1 Baltimore, which will be missing quarterback Lamar Jackson, at Atlanta. Tyler Huntley will start for the Ravens. The Falcons are playing their third primetime game in a row. They won their first two on the road against Green Bay and New Orleans to even their record at 2-2 after an 0-2 start. They are at home against the Ravens and play only one primetime game the rest of the year.
–The Monday night games feature two Super Bowls contenders with the 2-2 Rams at 3-1 Buffalo. The Rams started off 1-2 but rallied to overcome a 10-point fourth period deficit against Philadelphia last week to post a 24-20 victory. Buffalo was 3-0 before losing to New England last week. This game could be a Super Bowl preview.
–CBS has a single game Sunday with 2-2 Indianapolis at 2-2 Pittsburgh, 3-1 Las Vegas at 2-2 New England, surprising 3-1 Cleveland at the 1-3 New York Jets and a pair of 0-4 teams, Houston and Tennessee, playing at Tennessee in the early games. Their late game has 2-2 Denver playing at the winless Chargers.
–Fox has the doubleheader game with unbeaten San Francisco at 3-1 Seattle in a critical division game. The teams split their regular season games last year but Seattle beat the 49ers 41-6 in the playoffs last year and went on to win the Super Bowl. Their other late game has 2-2 Detroit playing at 1-3 Arizona. They have four early games with 3-1 Chicago going to 2-2 Green Bay for an historic rivalry game, 3-1 New York Giants playing at 1-3 Washington, unbeaten Minnesota at 1-3 New Orleans and 2-2 Cincinnati playing at winless Miami.
–The unbeaten Chiefs and Carolina have the first bye week of the season.
