Reactions to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beating the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night, a fresh look at NFL head coach hot seat rankings and more.
The viral clip from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 24-16 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night was not any of Bucky Irving’s 165 rushing yards, nor Todd Bowles’ indefensible decision to bypass a field goal that would have put his team up three scores with about 8 minutes remaining, nor any of Dak Prescott’s errant throws or even the game-ending turnover.
No, it was Prescott walking back to the locker room and someone in the tunnel — Yahoo reported it to be a car service driver — saying “Embarrassing” toward the Cowboys quarterback.
The guy has a point!
It’s just hard to take the Cowboys seriously as anything more than a real-life fantasy football team.
Prescott will finish the season with a nice stat line if he stays healthy, ditto CeeDee Lamb (who left the game early Thursday night with a quad injury), ditto George Pickens and Javonte Williams, etc.
But will it all lead to anything meaningful?
Dallas has missed the playoffs the last two seasons, has just one playoff win in the last seven years and hasn’t reached the conference championship game since its last Super Bowl season in 1995. That’s right — the Cowboys have gone more than three decades without reaching the NFC championship game.
The New York Jets have played in three conference championship games in that time! The Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders have played in two. The Cleveland Browns have … nope, moving on.
But bringing it back to the here and now, the Cowboys’ hype machine was once again humming at full speed this offseason and preseason.
A revamped defense and new defensive coordinator were going to make all the difference. The offense was going to be unstoppable if Prescott stayed healthy. Etc.
Sure looks like the same old Cowboys — and that hasn’t been a compliment since the mid-1990s.
Dallas had a chance to build real momentum coming off a dramatic 34-30 road win at Houston last week. The Cowboys had a chance to assert control in the NFC East, where the Philadelphia Eagles look broken, the New York Giants are getting by with smoke and mirrors and the Washington Commanders’ only hope is that QB Jayden Daniels’ can keep his left elbow in its socket long enough to save their season.
There is such a prime opportunity in place for the Cowboys.
And … with that they gave up 17 straight second-half points on the way to a humbling loss at home to the previously winless Buccaneers, a head coach likely to be fired after this season and an undrafted rookie QB making his second career start.
Dallas turned the ball over three times, including the game-ending interception on a promising potential game-tying drive in the final minutes when tight end Jake Ferguson couldn’t catch Prescott’s pass, deflecting it up into the air and ultimately into the arms of Bucs linebacker Alex Anzalone.
Dallas is now 2-3 with losses to two of the worst teams on its season schedule (the Giants being the other).
And yet, the Cowboys still have a favorable path forward. Even with three of the next four games on the road, those are winnable matchups against the reeling Packers and Eagles and the blah Colts sandwiched around a home game against a bad Cardinals team.
But what confidence can there be that the Cowboys will take advantage of those opportunities? What proof is there that they can?
Despite the trade last year for DT Quinnen Williams from the Jets after receiving DT Kenny Clark back from the Packers in the Micah Parsons deal, the moves this offseason to sign veteran EDGE Von Miller, trade for EDGE Rashan Gary from the Packers and use the No. 23 overall pick in the draft on EDGE Malachi Lawrence, hitting on LB Jaishawn Barham as an apparent third-round steal, spending big on free agent S Jalen Thompson and using the 11th overall pick in the draft on S Caleb Downs, signing CB Cobie Durant and recently trading for Steelers CB Joey Porter Jr. (who did not play Thursday night due to illness), and making a big deal about hiring new defensive coordinator Christian Parker, the Cowboys are … somehow worse defensively.
It’s true.
Last season, Dallas finished 30th in total defense at 377.0 yards per game allowed. Through five games, the Cowboys now rank 31st in total defense at 395.4 YPG. (Their 27.2 points per game allowed ranks 26th, a slight improvement from last year’s dead-last finish at 30.1 PPG).
Irving, the Tampa Bay running back, hadn’t rushed for more than 89 yards in any game since late in the 2024 season before rushing for 165 yards and a TD (plus a receiving score) on 7.9 yards per carry Thursday night. All the while, undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels looked like a seasoned veteran in completing 76% of his passes for 189 yards, a TD, no turnovers and just 1 sack.
Imagine how owner/general manager Jerry Jones must feel. Actually, no need to imagine.
There isn’t much left for Jones to do at this point but trade three first-round picks to the Packers for Parsons — the kind of game-changing defensive star the Cowboys have desperately been looking for since trading him away in the first place.
We’re being facetious, but it makes the point.
The Cowboys may well be the favorite to win the NFC East still with the Eagles’ offensive line disintegrating by the day, but even then, would it matter? Is there any reason to believe this team can string together multiple postseason wins if it even gets that far?
Thursday night was indeed “embarrassing” for the Cowboys, along with a lot of other adjectives.
Maybe the best one would just be “characteristic.”
Because this is who the Cowboys have been for a while now — an inconsistent, frustrating team that underwhelms, loses to seemingly lesser teams and in general looks hopeless defensively — and there’s no logical reason to expect anything else at this point.
Hopefully Jones at least had Pickens (9 catches for 130 yards and a TD) in his fantasy lineup last night because that’s the only kind of championship any Dallas player is going to be contributing to this year.
Todd Bowles Still Tops The Hot Seat Rankings
Don’t for a second think that Tampa Bay’s win changes anything for Bowles’ future or his status atop our NFL Hot Seat Rankings.
In fact, it’s fair to wonder if Bowles would have been made to walk the plank Friday morning had he illogical decision to bypass a field goal in the fourth quarter had cost the Bucs the game.
Let’s set the scene …
Tampa Bay has scored on three straight possessions to open the second half and take a 24-10 lead. The Cowboys have turned the ball over on three straight possessions (interception, fumbled kickoff return, downs) while looking generally hapless.
The Bucs burn more than 8 minutes off the clock with a grinding 12-play drive before a fourth-and-goal from the 1. There’s less than 9 minutes remaining, and a chip-shot field goal would put Tampa Bay up by 17 points to make it a three-score game. Dallas hasn’t scored once all half — three scores in the final 8-plus minutes would seem highly unlikely.
But Bowles opts to go for it on fourth down with third-string running back Sean Tucker, who gets stuffed for a turnover on downs.
Momentum shifts, Dallas drives 99 yards in 3:06 for a touchdown, forces a rare three-and-out and then is driving again for a potential game-tying score, all the way to the Tampa Bay 24 before that deflected pass interception ends it — saving Bowles from himself.
Look, even at 1-4, the Bucs could conceivably still win the NFC South — the worst division in football in which three teams tied for first at 8-9 last year.
But that’s unlikely, given how poorly QB Baker Mayfield was playing even before his latest injury, and even backing into the playoffs wouldn’t change the overall picture.
The reality is Bowles is 36-37 now in his fifth season in charge in Tampa Bay. He has one playoff win in that time. He opened the season atop our Hot Seat Rankings, and it would seem fair that he needed a true breakthrough season — at least 10 wins, a playoff victory, etc. — to earn his return for 2027.
Updated NFL HC Hot Seat Rankings
So Bowles will remain atop the Hot Seat Rankings, which now look like this:
1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Todd Bowles
2. Detroit Lions’ Dan Campbell: Detroit has by far the worst defense in the NFL — both statistically and visibly apparent to anyone who has ever watched football. The Lions also don’t seem to have quite the same magic they did a few years ago despite all the offensive talent still in place. It’s getting harder by the week to believe that Campbell is capable of turning it around after missing the playoffs entirely last season.
3. Philadelphia Eagles’ Nick Sirianni: We covered it more in-depth here Thursday, but basically, this is a steady two-year decline since the Super Bowl title, the offensive line is in ruins and Jalen Hurts looks broken. Sure feels like time for a full reset.
4. Green Bay Packers’ Matt LaFleur: LaFleur got a contract extension after last season, as questions swirled about his future, but terms of that deal were never revealed so it’s hard to know what actual security it provided him. Regardless, Green Bay looks like a shell of what it’s been in previous years. One line of thinking is that the Packers just need to tread water and stay afloat until Parsons returns in the next month or so, but that doesn’t change anything about the woeful offensive line or non-existent rushing attack with no word on Josh Jacobs’ status or potential NFL discipline.
5. Indianapolis Colts’ Shane Steichen: We actually gave Steichen as shoutout Thursday for doing a good job to get the Colts to 2-2 with a competitive overtime loss to the Chiefs, despite having one of the more underwhelming rosters in the NFL. But owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon made it clear in public comments after last season that this is a prove-it year for Steichen and GM Chris Ballard, and this still doesn’t look like a playoff team. So Steichen is going to have to truly outperform the sum of this team’s parts to keep his job if Irsay-Gordon sticks to her position.
Warming Seats: Cincinnati Bengals’ Zac Taylor, Washington Commanders’ Dan Quinn, Houston Texans’ DeMeco Ryans, New York Jets’ Aaron Glenn.
